DeQueen and Eastern Railroad Depot, Dierks Arkansas

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The DeQueen and Eastern Railroad was incorporated in 1900. The four Dierks brothers, Henry, Herman, Hans, and Peter came to southwest Arkansas from Nebraska in that same year and purchased a sawmill near DeQueen (Sevier County). They soon discovered that their initial dependence upon mules to haul logs from the forest to the mill proved time-consuming and costly, and thus they developed plans for the new rail line that would connect their milling operation with both the neighboring forests and the Kansas City-Southern Railroad line to the west.

Though it was a short line initially, the growth of the Dierks brothers' lumbering and milling operations necessitated expansion of their lumber holdings to the east, and thus required the rail line to move with it. By 1905 the town of Dierks in central Howard County was established. The Dierks brothers had constructed a new mill within the forest to the east to minimize the time required to transport the logs to the mill, and naturally, the railroad followed. The DeQueen and Eastern Railroad Depot was constructed soon thereafter, primarily serving the residents of the town as a passenger ticket office and waiting room.

The adaptability of the Italianate style to the medium of wood construction had been understood and exploited in Arkansas since after the Civil War, when the style came to the state in earnest; however, it generally disappeared as a popular style by 1890. Though little is known about either the Dierks brothers or their designers for this building, it seems likely that an older carpenter that was familiar with the Italianate 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, and certainly the only known surviving railroad depot so designed.

The station was demolished sometime before 2000.

Building Description

The DeQueen and Eastern Railroad Depot in Dierks is a single-story, wood-frame freight and passenger depot designed in a restrained interpretation of the Italianate style. Its basically rectangular plan is augmented by a projecting telegrapher's bay on its western elevation. The gable roof is covered throughout with asphalt shingles, and the novelty-sided walls rest upon a continuous, cast concrete foundation.

The eastern or front elevation is composed of two four-over-four wood sash windows to the south of a single-leaf door placed near the center. A large, overhead cargo door accesses the wall just to the north, and another window identical to those seen before finishes the elevation. The western or track side is dominated by the projecting telegrapher's bay placed just to the south of center. The telegrapher's bay is lighted with a large, central window in its western face and two smaller, single-pane windows in each of its northern and southern faces. The wall to the south of the telegrapher's bay is lighted by two four-over-four wood sash windows flanking a single-leaf entry, while the wall to the north is blank except for a single, large rolling cargo door.

The northern elevation is lighted by a single one-over-one wood sash window placed to the east; the southern elevation is lighted by a single window placed to the west of identical sash configuration as that seen on the opposite elevation.

Significant exterior details include the decorative wood knee braces that feature curvilinear detailing, the open vergeboards that ornament the cornice around all four elevations, the imbricated shingles in the pediment of the gabled telegrapher's bay, and the blind oculi in the gable peaks of both the northern and southern elevations, each of which is filled with a decorative star motif.

(1992)

(1992)