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International
& Great Northern Railroad Passenger Depot
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
100, N Main St, Rockdale
TE photo,
May 2008 |
History in
a Pecan Shell
In 1873 as the
International-Great Northern Railroad was laying track between Hearne
and Austin, local businessmen
sold 400 acres of land to the railroad to plat a townsite. The town
lots were auctioned in the fall of 1873 and the railroad arrived in
early 1874. The honor of naming the new town fell to Mrs. B. F. Ackerman
who named it after a specific boulder said to be 20 feet in circumference
and nearly 12 feet high.
The arrival of the railroad
made Rockdale Milam County’s
first major railroad
connection. The population swelled to 1,700 by the mid 1880s.
Lignite coal was extracted from several area mines in the 1890s and
in 1891 the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway became the town’s
second railroad. Coal mining became more important to the economy
with an estimated 7,000 ore cars leaving Rockdale weekly.
With the discovery of a (shallow) oilfield in 1920, lignite mining
declined and a refinery was built. After WWII
the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) opened a plant here – occupying
most of what was the town of Sandow, Texas.
From 2,300 residents in 1954, the population grew to 6,300 in four
short years. In 1959 Rockdale’s north-south rail line was abandoned.
Lignite mining continued through the 1970s.
The population of Rockdale in the early 1960s was around 4,500, growing
to 5,810 by the late 1980s.
Rockdale Hotels
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Rockdale, Texas
Landmarks & Attractions
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Hisrtorical
Marker (100 N Main St, Rockdale):
International
& Great Northern Railroad Passenger Depot
Three rail lines
largely contributed to Rockdale's early commercial development, and
of the three, the International & Great Northern (I&GN) made the biggest
impact. This former I&GN passenger depot opened in 1906. It survived
various changes to the rail company, including its transition to the
Missouri Pacific line in 1956. After years of declining rail use by
passengers, the last passenger train left the depot on September 21,
1970, and the building served as storage for many years.
Restored at the turn of the 21st century, the depot is eclectic in
design with elements of Italianate, Queen Anne and Prairie styles
of architecture. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark -
2005 |
Rockdale Police
Department
TE photo, May 2008 |
He survived the
war, but fell in peace.
TE photo, 2001 |
Native Son
George
Sessions Perry by Clay Coppedge
...The temptation to look for George Sessions Perry's Rockdale can
be strong because few writers are linked in readers' minds with
a hometown like Perry and Rockdale...
Perry's novel Hold Autumn In Your Hand which won the National Book
Award in 1941, is still the book for which Perry is best known.
The book was made into a popular movie, "The Southerner," starring
Zachary Scott as Sam Tucker, the story's main character. The book
is often compared with Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck, with Perry's
book often getting the higher mark from critics... more
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Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
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landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
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