RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - Since its construction in 1911, the Mills Station House has been a post office, a bar, a gas station, a fire station, a restaurant, a dance hall and, most recently, its upstairs space has served as a meeting center for civic groups and community events. 

As for the building itself?  It’s been moved. Twice.  Now, it is set for one more makeover and relaunch. On February 28, the Mather Field/Mills Station House at Mather Field Road and Folsom Boulevard will relaunch as the Rancho Cordova Arts and Community Center.  

According to Mayor Linda Budge, who joined other community leaders to protect the historic building from demolition more than two decades and facilitate its relocation to its current home at the Mather Field Transit Stop, the new Arts and Community Center will be reopen to provide a community space for arts and entertainment events, festivals and more. 

While the upstairs has been used by a few civic groups and the city itself for meeting space, the downstairs has sat mostly vacant and unoccupied for years.  The upstairs portion of the building has been rented to the Fire Fighters Association, which, along with Regional Transit, conducts monthly meetings there.

Now, according to Budge, Mills Station House has been given an $883,000 makeover, paid for by the city’s community enhancement fund.  Mills Station House is owned by the Sacramento Regional Transit, however, the city leases the building.

“The building has been sitting out there since we moved it in 1998 to make way for the new Butterfield Transit Line,” said Budge.  “Twenty five years ago, the city of Rancho Cordova and the Community Council and Regional Transit Board made a commitment to doing something with the building.  We’ve leased the upstairs for events and meetings, but downstairs, nothing has really been happening.”

The roughly 2,000-square foot Mills Station building was originally located near the Northeast corner of Folsom Boulevard and Mather Field Drive.  It was situated curbside on Folsom Boulevard and, while operating as a popular watering hole for locals, it also presented some safety concerns that required the building to be moved back away from the road.

“The police and safety officials became very concerned that patrons leaving the tavern at night would be at risk for being hit by cars coming along Folsom Boulevard,” said Budge.  “So, the decision was made to set the building back about 200 feet from the curb in 1972.”

The Mills Station House was sold after it was moved back from the street and later operated as a restaurant, which closed in 1991.  Next came threats of demolition, however, the community support for saving the building outweighed the threats and in 1993 the Mills Station Building was declared a Landmark of Transportation and Historical Significance.  

According to Budge, it sat vacant until its relocation in 1998, taken, ever so carefully, diagonally across Folsom Boulevard and the Mather Field Drive intersection to become the Sacramento Regional Transit Mather Field/Mills Light Rail Station Building.

Moving day drew big crowds, said Budge, and it was an event she and many others will never forget, as it was a tricky move, facilitated around the installation of overhead rail lines that required an early-morning transport.

“The building was moved to its current location very early in the morning for a reason,” said Budge.  “It was moved at 6 a.m. in the morning of May 17, 1998, and the reason it had to be moved so early is because Sacramento Regional Transit was planning on putting in the overhead lines for the new rail system at Butterfield.  The building could not have been moved after the lines were put in because it would have hit them.  It was the biggest party to hit town.”

The Mills Station House was delivered to its new home at the Mather Field Rails Station and re-opened in 2001.  Although the upstairs has been used and some of the features inside were upgraded, to the consternation of the city, the large, downstairs portion has remained primarily a showpiece.  For the last several years, representatives from the city, Regional Transit and the Cordova Recreation and Park District have been brainstorming ideas and options for how to utilize the space as an and arts and culture center, but those plans have, until now, failed to gain traction.  

 “We have worked to find a way to create an arts exhibit and performance space for the building, but it has been difficult to get it off the ground,” said Budge.  “So we are very excited to now have a date for re-introducing the building to the community and to begin using it as we have always intended.”

The Feb. 28 re-opening celebrations for Mills Station House will feature an installation by Sacramento sculptor and artist Danny Scheible, famous for his “Tapigami,” projects that involve the creation of elaborate sculptures made of masking tape.  Scheible also will return in March to conduct community workshops for anyone interested in learning how to make their own Tapigami art pieces.