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The Tyler
Depot
A National Historic Landmark
Tyler,
Texas
by Bob Bowman
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When
the first steam locomotive made its way into East Texas more than
a century and a quarter ago, it changed the economy and future of
the region in ways that were never imagined.
Today, however, many of the old railroad depots that became community
landmarks have vanished--the fallout of a new wave of progress brought
about by automobiles and highways.
Some of the depots that characterized the monumental changes in East
Texas are still standing, but rotting away in fields, where they were
moved to allow for new buildings in town.
Some towns, however, have kept their depots as reminders of the era
when everyone used the railroad.
One such depot stands at Tyler,
where it is now revered as a National Historic Landmark. |
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Depot in Tyler
Photo by John Troesser, May 2002 |
Located
in a downtown area known simply as “The Levee,” the depot was built
in 1905 to serve the Texas & St. Louis Railway -- later known as the
Cotton Belt - which had arrived in the city 25 years earlier.
With a population of less than 2,500, Tyler soon became a railway
hub and Smith County moved from a largely agricultural economy to
one with the transportation links to send its raw materials to markets
all over the country. Peaches, strawberries, potatoes, plums and tomatoes
went to distant markets like St. Louis, Denver, Omaha and Milwaukee.
The Cotton Belt not only established in Tyler a roundhouse and machine
shops, but located its executive offices here, as well as a hospital
known for its efforts to wipe out smallpox, malaria and typhoid fever.
Tyler businessmen also saw growth from the Cotton Belt. Railroaders
found rooms at the old St. Charles Hotel and Sam MarDock, Tyler’s
first Chinese businessman, opened a restaurant that served as the
unofficial eating place for Cotton Belt hands.
By 1924, the railroad provided nearly 1,300 jobs, generated a payroll
of nearly $2 million, and paid almost $40,000 in local taxes for Tyler.
But with the arrival of the Great Depression, the railroad -- like
most other businesses and institutions -- fell on hard times. And
as roads and automobiles improved in the forties, trucking took away
much of the Cotton Belt’s customers. Travelers stopped using railroad
passenger cars.
In 1956, the last passenger train arrived in Tyler and the railroad
depot was used for storage and offices until it was boarded up and
abandoned in 1987.
But Tyler’s love for all things historical soon embraced the old depot
and, with a gift of the building to the city by the Cotton Belt, Tyler
purchased the land on which the depot rested and began a revitalization
effort funded by a half-cent sales tax, the generosity of the Vaughn
Foundation, and federal grants.
The restoration was completed in four phases and a year ago the depot
returned to life as the headquarters of the city’s public transportation
services.
And on June 4, a city-wide celebration unveiled a plaque that establishes
the depot as a National Historic Landmark.
Since its restoration, the depot has become a landmark for Tyler and
attracts railroad enthusiasts and others almost every day. The depot
also houses an exhibit of rail-related memorabilia, much of it linked
to Tyler’s early years when the steam locomotive was king.
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Things Historical -
October 31, 2005 Column
Published with permission
(Distributed by the East Texas Historical Association. Bob Bowman,
of Lufkin, is a past president of the Association and the author of
more than 30 books about East Texas.)
See Tyler,
Texas
More Texas Depots
Preservation |
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