Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories pledged $50,000 toward the outdoor play area for the Pullman Depot Heritage Center restoration project.

Project co-director Linda Hackbarth said the restoration is early in development and she does not know when the Pullman Historical Society will get the money. This is because the pledge may only come in whenthe heritage center needs it for design or building costs for the play area and not before.

Stephanie Schweitzer, SEL vice president for marketing and communications, said because the project is so early in development it is unclear when the pledge will be needed. She said SEL is excited to support children in the community.

The heritage center staff is grateful for the support of SEL and other donors, Hackbarth said.

The society raised $475,000 during the past year and members hopes to raise $3 million for the restoration, she said.

Hackbarth said PHS is a little over a year into the planning process. It has been working with Design West Architects to determine cost estimates for different parts of the project though they are unsure of what the $3 million goal will actually cover.

The Pullman Depot is in good condition despite it being built in 1916, Hackbarth said. Even though it requires relatively few repairs, there are special considerations that must be made anytime a building from that time gets modernized.

“I still see telephone poles that were in 1910 photos that are still there kind of tipped over and I go ‘Well we need to get rid of all those,’” she said.

She said the historical society plans to remove false walls that have been added over time to show the original interior space, replacing glass doors with wooden freight doors and redoing the “herringbone brick pattern” outside the building.

Other needs include completely replacing the electrical and plumbing systems, Hackbarth said. The historical society has run into a number of electrical, drainage and plumbing issues throughout the process.

Hackbarth said she hopes by the end of the project that people think of the depot as a place to stop when they visit Pullman.