'On the tracks to the future': Cheney Depot Society set to unveil restored historic depot with new coffee shop

The Cheney Northern Pacific Railroad depot will soon bustle with activity again.

Gone are the bellows of a train horn as it pulls into the station, the mechanical roar as one slowly pulls away and the tittering of students arriving for class at the State Normal School, which later became Eastern Washington University. In its stead will be the whistles of an espresso machine, the chatter of coffee-sipping study groups and, occasionally, the rumbling of a freight train as it passes by the southeast windows.

More than 50 years after the last passenger train left, the Cheney Depot is entering a new era in its nearly 100 -year history.

The Cheney Depot Society will unveil the town's restored Northern Pacific Railroad depot Saturday afternoon with guided tours and an open house from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. The event will be the first time the public will see the renovated building since the community rallied to save the Spanish Eclectic-style building from being demolished in 2014.

Cole Clark, a Cheney Depot Society board member, said she and the rest of the nonprofit ownership are excited to unveil the town's "hidden gem," complete with historical artifacts from the rail lines that once frequented the station.

"We've now saved the building," Clark said. "I look at it as we've reached that stop, and now we're on the tracks to the future."

Saturday's activities will be prefaced by the grand opening of the building's sole tenant, Eastern Coffee Roasters, on Friday. The family-owned shop run by April and Jeff Wright and their daughters will offer specialty beverages, baked goods and lunch items. The West Plains Chamber of Commerce will hold a ribbon -cutting ceremony at 9:30 a.m.

The depot will be the company's first brick-and-mortar location, but Jeff Wright said he hopes the historic building will one day function as a home-base roastery for a sprawling Inland Northwest coffee company.

Wright is a West Side transplant who spent a few decades working in a variety of business roles, including as a business development consultant for Fortune 500 companies like Nike. He said he used to spend hours working in various coffee shops in brewing hubs like Seattle and Portland, and the family naturally forms a dream team that complements his own experience.

He said his wife, April, once his junior-high crush, brings years of experience in customer relations. Daughter Rachel Gorsuch, director of operations, is a seasoned barista taking on the menus and training the shop's 12 employees.

The youngest daughter, 10-year-old Annora Wright, is a 1% owner and serves as director of event sales. Wright said it's a fitting role that's helped sway more than a few customers at farmers markets.

"That's why we do all this stuff, for our kids and grandkids," Wright said.

The blended family's coffee venture started in 2023, focused on online orders but with the eventual goal of opening drive-thru locations across the region. Business grew steadily, aided by appearances at local community events with a mobile coffee trailer acquired last year. As the family began eyeing potential locations to build its first drive -thru, Wright said he kept hearing about an old train depot.

Wright and his family wanted to avoid operating a sit-down location. They went back and forth with the Cheney Depot Society several times, he said.

"They finally said, 'You got to come see it,' " Wright said. "And when we came down and looked at their plans and sat with them, it changed for us."

In 2014, the depot was set for demolition. The last passenger train went through Cheney in 1971, and the railroad used the building primarily for storage in the following decades.

A community effort named "Save our Station" slowly but steadily gained traction. The Cheney Depot Society found a significant ally in the late Dr. Peter O. Hansen, who grew up in Cheney and practiced medicine in Alaska. He offered a dollar for dollar match up to $500,000 if the group could find funding to purchase and renovate the landmark.

The society received additional funding from the community, as well as more than $600,000 in state grants.

The doctor never got to see the final product of his generosity, but Clark said his widow, Karolee Hansen, has been an excellent partner throughout the process and will attend the unveiling Saturday.

The restored depot underwent a few changes from its 1929 state. The entire building was rotated 180 degrees and moved several blocks to a plot still along an active rail line in 2020. The side now facing the street greeted travelers in the depot's heyday.

Inside, the floors of the area where rail freight was kept were lowered to accommodate the coffee shop's roasting and kitchen equipment, and to make room for a conference room available to book free of charge.

On the north end, a wall separating the former women's waiting area was knocked down to open the space to the rest of the building. Eagle-eyed visitors will be able to spot original windows and doors by the crackling of the aged wood, Clark said.

Wright said the charm of the building, and its location, took center stage at a stress test last week ahead of the shop's opening. Community members were invited to try the drinks and food, while the baristas got needed practice. Every so often, a BNSF Railway train rolled by.

"When the trains came by, people migrated to different tables so they could actually see," Wright said. "That was the coolest part; you had kids jumping over to the window tables so they could check that out, and then the parents would move over and get caught up as well."

Clark said the board is grateful to see the coffee shop breathe new life into the building, and excited to see how the community responds to the completed work - more than a decade and thousands of volunteer hours since the project started.

April Wright said she's grateful her family has been part of the project, and will have the fortune of growing their business inside a building saved by her community.

"A historic building is great; a historic building with a purpose is amazing," Clark said.

"And now we're a part of its history," April Wright added.

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This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 7:05 PM.