The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Painesville Railroad Museum celebrates ‘Hobo Day’
The Painesville Railroad Museum paid tribute to the hobos July 27.
It was the first time the museum has held Hobo Day. The idea for the event came after the success of last year’s 125th birthday party for the railroad depot, which was held around this time.
“We can’t do a birthday again. The big anniversary is over, so let’s celebrate the hobos who used to ride the rails,” museum Vice President Tom Pescha said.
Attendees were encouraged to come in costume. Food at the event included a “hobo stew,” cooked over an open pit outside of the museum.
The event also featured author Barbara Hacha who talked about hobo life and signed books. Hacha has done extensive research on hobos and hobo culture, writing both fiction and non-fiction works on the subject.
Hacha’s work includes the 2011 novel “Line by Line,” about a woman who flees her Central Ohio hometown by freight train during the Great Depression, according to her website. Her research for that novel helped lead to the writing of 2013’s non-fiction “Mulligan Stew: Stories and Traditions of American Hobos.”
Proceeds raised from the event go towards the restoration work being done at the 475 Railroad St. museum. The depot opened Feb. 1, 1983. Lake County Service men said “goodbye” from the station during World War I and was used as a canteen for traveling soldiers during World War II. The depot served as a passenger station until 1971, when Amtrak was formed. After passenger service ended, it was used as a Greyhound Bus Station until June 1988. The Western Reserve Railroad Association was formed in 1997 to help save the historic depot. Painesville named the depot and Railroad Street as a historic district in 2015.
Pescha said the restoration work continues along. Work over the past few years has included adding new time-period chandeliers, rebuilding windows in the caboose area and major work on the Express Room.