Memphis, Paris and Gulf Railroad Depot, Ashdown Arkansas

Date added: March 17, 2025

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The Memphis, Paris and Gulf Railroad Depot was constructed in 1908 upon the completion of the rail line to Ashdown from Nashville, Arkansas. The Memphis, Paris and Gulf Railroad was incorporated in 1905 as but one of many such small, ambitious rail lines that sought to access the rich timberland of southwest Arkansas in response to the national and international demand for finished lumber, particularly for home building. As the name indicates, the original goal of this enterprise was to connect these woodlands with Memphis, Tennessee to the east, Paris, Texas to the southwest, and various points beyond in both directions. The fledgling Memphis, Paris and Gulf Railroad sputtered through a year of grand plans, good intentions, and precious little else until a second group of interested local citizens, with much more realistic short-term goals, obtained a new charter in 1906. This group sought only to construct a standard-gauge railroad between the Arkansas towns of Nashville in Howard County and Ashdown in Little River County, a total of twenty-five miles of track that ran through the heart of the timber country and connected it with the Kansas City-Southern Railroad (KCS) that ran through Ashdown on its way from Kansas City, Missouri to Port Arthur, Texas. Not surprisingly, this second incorporation of the railroad coincided with the incorporation of the Nashville Lumber Company in Nashville, and by the same investors, the Brown-Henderson Improvement and Timber Company (W.W. Brown hailed from Camden, Arkansas, while C.C. Henderson was from Arkadelphia). It was financed by a capital stock issue of $375,000.

Formal construction on the line began on June 20^th, 1906, when equipment began to arrive at Nashville. Survey work proceeded for the next few weeks, with the final route determined by early July. Bids were then taken for the grading work along the line, and the clearing and roadway preparation began immediately thereafter, with the work beginning at Nashville and proceeding through the forest toward Ashdown to the southwest. The process of purchasing the right-of-way through the forest paralleled that of the construction, proceeding from Nashville and heading toward the envisioned intersection with the KCS in Ashdown.

By early September 1906, C. C. Henderson, president of the MP & G, visited Ashdown and promised the local residents that he would run his line directly into the heart of Ashdown and even establish his car and engine shops there if they would agree to put up a cash bonus and donate land for both the necessary depot and the right-of-way through town. The townspeople readily agreed, anticipating the boost to the local economy such a railroad connection would bring, and actually exceeded Henderson's requested land and right-of-way donation.

By October of 1906 nine miles of roadbed had been graded, awaiting only ties and rails. As these supplies arrived toward the end of the year, along with a new locomotive, the Brown-Henderson Company continued to purchase valuable timber land adjacent to the railroad, thereby expanding their potential profits. A second locomotive arrived in early January of 1907, and the Brown-Henderson mill would be operational by April. Passenger equipment arrived by December and U.S. Mail service was inaugurated on April 13^th, 1908.

The MP & G would undergo an assortment of successes, failures and trials over the next few years, including the financial problems of the cement plant at White Cliffs (the western terminus for the line and the principal reason for extending the line at considerable expense across the Little River), the construction of a branch to Murfreesboro (Pike County) to take advantage of the expected development of the diamond field that was discovered there in 1906 (followed by another branch extending from Murfreesboro to Hot Springs via passage over the intersecting rails of the Gurdon & Ft. Smith Railroad), the absorption into the system of several other smaller independent local rail lines, and even the changing of the name to the Memphis, Dallas and Gulf Railroad (MD & G) in 1910 when it became clear that the earlier plans to extend the line to Texas would not materialize. Aggressive expansion characterized the railroad's policies in the second decade of the twentieth century, as its directors envisioned their line playing an important role in the region as the main local connection between the rapidly consolidating trunk lines that ran along the borders of the state's southwest quadrant. The onset of World War I generally, the disastrous effects it had on the national economy, and the nervousness in caused certain principal investors in the MD & G ultimately spelled its doom. By 1922 it had gone into receivership and was sold at auction that same year.

Though purchased by its former stockholders, the railroad operation was reorganized as the Graysonia, Nashville and Ashdown Railroad (GN & A), and it operated as such until 1927, though it experienced constant problems during its first five years of operation, primarily due to growing competition from the overland trucking industry. It received new life in 1927, however, when it was purchased again by the Ideal Cement Company, which had opened a new plant in Okay, Arkansas, in southern Howard County. Ideal saw the wisdom of owning their own railroad line, thereby insuring control of both the cost and reliability of transporting their product to market. Ideal transformed the GN & A into a freight operation by and large, though the company continued to offer passenger service until 1947. The GN & A continued to operate as an independent freight operation until early 1993, when it was purchased by the KCS.

The Memphis, Paris and Gulf Railroad Depot in Ashdown is clearly significant through its direct associations with the lumber rail line that connected the town of Ashdown with the outside world both commercially and socially; however, it is also significant as one of the last known examples of a design influenced by the Folk Victorian style in the state of Arkansas. The adaptability of the Folk Victorian style (generally speaking, a smaller scale and relatively vernacular interpretation of the Queen Anne Revival) to the medium of wood construction had been understood and exploited in Arkansas since the 1880s, when the style came to the state in earnest; however, it generally disappeared as a popular style by the turn of the century. Though nothing is known about the designer of this building, it seems likely that an older carpenter that was familiar with this style was involved in the design and construction of this building. Whatever the reason, this is probably the latest architectural expression of this style in Arkansas.

Building Description

The Memphis, Paris and Gulf Railroad Depot, located at the northern corner of Whitaker Avenue and Frisco Street in downtown Ashdown, is a single-story, wood-frame railroad depot designed in the Plain Traditional style common for such depot buildings throughout the state, but with more unusual Folk Victorian influences. The fundamentally rectangular plan is augmented only by the shallow telegrapher's bay that projects from the southeastern elevation. The asphalt shingle roof, and the stucco and novelty siding walls are all supported upon short sections of wood logs, placed vertically.

The southeastern or main elevation of the building is anchored by the gabled telegrapher's bay that projects just northeast of the central, single-leaf entrance. The telegrapher's bay is fenestrated with two large six-over-six wood windows on its trackside face and a single narrow four-over-four window on each of its sides. Both the central single-leaf entrance and the entrance at the northeastern end of the elevation each retain their original three-pane transoms, though the northeastern entrance door has been replaced with a modern door at some point in the relatively recent past. The windows are all six-over-six wood sash, and sheltered beneath the broad, overhanging cornice that extends the full length of the elevation. The northwestern or opposite elevation is punctuated only by three large six-over-six wood sash windows placed irregularly down the wall.

The northeastern elevation features two of the large six-over-six wood sash windows, placed symmetrically within the wall. The southwestern elevation opposite originally contained a large rolling freight door; however, this door has been filled and a single-leaf entrance placed near the center of the wall.

Significant exterior details include such elements as the decorative wood brackets that support the cornice around all four elevations and the stick detail in the gable verges at the northeastern and southwestern ends of the building. Other details of note are the original window sash and the textured stucco upper-wall finish.

The interior, which has served a variety of purposes after the depot closes, appears to retain its basic historic floor plan, though many of the original finishes have been removed. The former white waiting room at the northeastern end remains separated from the original telegrapher's area by a partition and doorway, and the telegrapher's area in turn is separated by a wall from the black waiting room to the southwest. The original freight room was located at the southwestern end of the building and was accessed by a wooden loading dock (now removed); its floor plan also appears to be intact. Other than the removal of some of the original interior finishes and the probable removal of an original chimney, the Memphis, Paris and Gulf Railroad Depot in Ashdown is intact.