HASSO HERING

Traces of history: Brick pavement and rail in 100 block of Fifth Avenue S.E. on Dec. 6, 2024.

The Nov. 26 story about the remodeling of the former Oregon Electric Railway depot in Albany prompted a couple of comments about the brick paving that once covered that part of Southeast Fifth Avenue. One person wondered if the brick was still there and whether it could be restored.

I don’t know about restoring any century-old bricks that may be hidden under the layer of crumbling blacktop there. I doubt it’s possible or that anybody would want to pay for such a project.

But as you can see, at least some of the brick is still there, along with a section of the track that once ran along the length of Fifth Avenue from Main Street to the Calapooia River. (Old photos show two tracks at the depot on Fifth, one near the platform and the other in the middle of the street.)

The first time I wrote about this was on April 29, 2018. You can look it up here. The story touched on the history of the Oregon Electric and included a map from 1917 showing the Fifth Avenue line.

The following year, on Jan. 11, 2019, I returned to the topic with a question about the railroad track that still shows up on one block of Baker Street just south of Fifth.

Back in the day, the Baker Street track clearly curved into the Fifth Avenue line, but it didn’t show up on any maps and evidently extended only one block.

Commenters on that story suggested the still-visible rails allowed the train cars to turn around. But why? In historical photos, those self-propelled electric passenger cars look like they could go back and forth without having to turn.

On a bike ride last week I took another look. Like the brick and rail near the old depot, the Baker Street track is still there. But its original purpose is no more obvious now than it was five years ago (hh)

Here’s part of the old railroad track on Baker Street last week, looking north toward the intersection with Fifth Avenue.