“Railroads play a significant role in the history of Xenia and especially Xenia Station, which was once a junction of five rail lines and the location of a passenger and freight rail station,” said Xenia City Planner Brian Forschner. “The caboose is an important symbol of this history. Additionally, the caboose has become a beloved Xenia landmark ... and commonly used as a reference point in local vernacular.”
The caboose is on the east end of Xenia Station, at the intersection of Detroit Street and Miami Avenue.
The Greene County Historical Society’s committee of volunteers has maintained the caboose and provided educational tours for residents and schoolchildren alike for years. Members conducted tours called “Meet Me at the Station,” for elementary school students in Xenia until about 2015.
However, as historical society members have gotten older, the organization’s ability to take care of the caboose has waned, said Catherine Wilson, director of the Greene County Historical Society.
“There’s been so much vandalism,” she said. “And the Railroad Display Committee that had been taking care of it and using it for programming ... people are either dying off or unable physically to climb in and out of the caboose.”
Two other proposals were submitted to the Greene County Historical Society to purchase the caboose, one by a private individual, and the other by the Fairborn Historical Society. However, these alternatives would have resulted in the caboose being moved elsewhere, Wilson said.
The red caboose “has become a cherished and highly visible community landmark and serves as a tangible educational piece of Xenia’s history,” city documents say, adding that the caboose “will remain a centerpiece” of the city’s Hub District plan.
The city of Xenia was a railroad hub from about 1846 until the 1930s, Wilson said. Xenia had the railroad running through the town before Dayton did, and even before Columbus.
“Dayton had the canals, Springfield had the National Road, as did Columbus,” she said. “So rail became kind of the transportation of choice.”
The city recently worked with local residents and business owners to develop a plan for the “Hub District,” which envisions an expansion of Xenia Station with new recreational amenities, housing, and businesses “developed on currently vacant or underutilized properties,” Forschner said, and the caboose is part of the identity of that local area.
“This would provide another catalyst for our downtown, to complement the Market District,” he said.
While the city doesn’t have any immediate plans for programming surrounding the caboose, they’re open to ideas, Forschner said.
“This could include historic tours like those that previously occurred at this site, or more ambitious uses such as temporary or seasonal events, art displays, or food vendors,” he said.
Carillon Historical Park donated the caboose to the Greene County Historical Society in 1998, and the caboose has had its home near Xenia Station ever since.
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