Former Train Station in Arkansas was Destroyed by Fire in 2000


Rock Island Railroad Depot - Booneville, Booneville Arkansas
Date added: September 23, 2024
 (1992)

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The Choctaw, Memphis and Gulf Railroad, which in 1904 became the Chicago, Rock Island and Southern Railroad (known as the Rock Island), was originally incorporated in 1899, after it bought the financially troubled Memphis and Little Rock Railroad. The new owners purchased the line with the intent of extending it westward from Little Rock to the Oklahoma border as soon as possible, thereby providing the most direct connection between the growing city of Little Rock and the newly-settled territory of Oklahoma (Oklahoma became a state on November 16th, 1907). True to its intent, the railroad promptly constructed the new line extending to the Oklahoma border, and new railroad depots along with it.

Booneville was the last large community on the line before the track passed into Oklahoma, and hence received one of the larger depots. It was constructed soon after the line was completed, and was opened for passenger traffic almost immediately thereafter. It is significant not only for its associations with both the Choctaw, Memphis and Gulf Railroad and the Chicago, Rock Island and Southern Railroad, both of which made important contributions to the expansion of the railroad system in Arkansas and thus to the far-reaching consequences thereof, but also for its unusual style of architecture. Clearly influenced by the Spanish Mission architecture of the American Southwest and probably symbolic of the Choctaw, Rock Island and Southern's aspirations for extending the line through Oklahoma into the southwestern region on its way to the California coast, this depot stands as one of the earliest examples of this particular architectural aesthetic in the entire state.

Unfortunately the station was destroyed by fire in 2000.

Building Description

The Rock Island Railroad Depot in Booneville is a single-story, wood-frame freight and passenger railroad depot designed in an unusual and early interpretation of the Spanish Mission style. The rectangular plan of the gable roof enclosed structure is adorned with a hipped roof, wrap-around porch that extends across the entire southern elevation and wraps around to both the western and eastern elevations. This porch is supported by stone columns that are adorned by decorative wood arches that span the openings between them. A single brick chimney rises through the northern slope of the gable roof, just to the west of center. The roof is covered with ceramic tiles, and the walls and foundation are stuccoed.

The southern or front elevation is dominated by the hipped roof, stone porch supported upon ten stone columns. The columns are connected by arched wood cornices that attach to the columns with integral, decorative wood brackets. The wall surface beneath the porch is divided into three distinct bays by the central, curving telegrapher's bay with its three, symmetrically placed window and entrance groupings. The wall surface to the west is lighted with two single windows placed toward the end of the building and two single-leaf doors placed next to the telegrapher's bay. The wall to the east was originally lighted by a pair of windows and two separate entrances, but these have been more recently boarded up. The northern elevation opposite is accessed only by a single rolling freight door placed near the center, with a pair of fixed, horizontal windows to the west and two separate pairs of multi-pane casement windows at the eastern end (now boarded-up) with three smaller, fixed windows placed symmetrically toward the center.

The eastern elevation is dominated by the single-story porch that wraps around from the southern elevation for the full length of the elevation; the wall beneath is lighted with a pair of windows to the south and a single-leaf entrance to the north. The wrap-around porch extends across the western elevation for only a single bay, with the remainder of the gable end wall being punctuated only by a central, large rolling door.

Significant exterior details are largely limited to the three-dimensional texture lent to both the roof and the walls by the clay tile and the rubble stone finish, respectively, and the Mediterranean polychrome of the red tile, the beige and white stucco and the gray stone. The wood arches and decorative wood brackets between the porch columns add the only purely decorative ornament.

Rock Island Railroad Depot - Booneville, Booneville Arkansas  (1992)
(1992)

Rock Island Railroad Depot - Booneville, Booneville Arkansas  (1992)
(1992)

Rock Island Railroad Depot - Booneville, Booneville Arkansas  (1992)
(1992)