There's no denying that Portage's old Soo Line Depot has seen better days.

Several local people hope, however, that the century-old structure's "better days" might also lie ahead.

One possible scenario: The depot could be moved, either whole or piece-by-piece, to Riverside Park, where it could serve as the structure housing long-desired restrooms for users of the park and the nearby Wisconsin River Levee Trail.

Or, it could be remodeled to become the entryway of a downtown economic office, with space for exhibits depicting Portage history.

Or, it could be a children's museum.

None of these potential fates for the depot has been officially decided upon, but a decision will likely have to be made soon.

At a recent meeting of the city of Portage's Historic Preservation Commission, and later at a Common Council meeting, the future of the depot was a topic of discussion.

According to minutes from the Nov. 18 Historic Preservation Commission session, the Portage Historical Society has been told that the depot must be moved from its present location along Superior Street by 2010.

That location is "in the middle of a tank farm," said Gil Meisgeier, president of the Portage Canal Society.

He said he advocates moving the structure, intact, to a place in Portage where it can be restored, used and appreciated.

The depot, built in the 1890s to replace a structure that was built in 1876 and burned down, was "a prototype" of new passenger rail depots that were being built before the turn of the 20th century, Meisgeier said.

In its heyday, it had a large room that served as a passenger waiting area, and another room for storing passengers' luggage. The station was the terminus of a rail line that once carried passengers between Portage and Stevens Point, and which later extended as far north as Ashland.

Tim Raimer, city of Portage manager of parks, recreation and forestry, said the building, once it stopped being used as a depot, housed the offices of a gas company. It has been decades, however, since the building has been used for anything but storage. Now it sits boarded up.

"It's a really cool building," he said. "A lot of Portage people's relatives worked at that building back in its day."

However, he acknowledged, the building presently is in "pretty rough shape."

The idea of using it as a Riverside Park restroom is one of many ideas that have been proposed over the years, Raimer said, and it's an idea to which he is amenable.

There are no flush toilets along the levee trail, Raimer said. Using the depot for that purpose would meet a need of park and trail users and preserve local history at the same time, he said.

"I'm supportive of the idea that promotes history, brings people into our city and gives us the bathrooms that we need," he said.

The question in his mind, however, is whether the depot can be moved without it falling to pieces.

Meisgeier said a building moving company has told him the structure can be moved whole, and that's what he wants to have happen.

Roger Krejchik isn't so sure the structure could survive a move.

Krejchik, site manager for the old Woolen Mill on Mullet Street, said his interest in the area stems from a desire to clean up the area near the Woolen Mill and make it desirable for future development.

Having the depot restored nearby would do that, he said, but "real bluntly, that building is not in a state where it's moveable."

An alternative, according to Krejchik, would be to disassemble the depot, and preserve the strongest and most historically unique components of the structure for rebuilding into an adaptive re-use.

One of the uses proposed a few years ago was as a museum for children.

And, there'd been talk of re-adapting the depot into a facade for a new, centrally-located space for local economic development organizations, with both the depot structure itself and the artifacts displayed within it spotlighting the area's history, Krejchik said.

"It is a pretty decrepit-looking building now," he said, "but it has possibilities."

Whatever happens to the building, Meisgeier said, he doesn't want it leaving town.

A similar depot in Boscobel has been renovated and is now in use, he said. The community of Plover has expressed interest in the past in acquiring Portage's depot, because Plover used to have a similar structure, he said.

Portage's depot should stay in Portage, one way or another, Meisgeier said.

"If it can be moved to Riverside Park," he said, "that would be great."

ljerde@capitalnewspapers.com

745-3587