Former St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Train Station Fayetteville AR

Frisco Railroad Depot, Fayetteville Arkansas

Date added: April 09, 2025

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The first passenger train arrived at Fayetteville on July 4^th, 1882. Its arrival marked an end to the geographical isolation of the Ozark region of Northwest Arkansas. The city of Fayetteville, the largest and most affluent population center in the region and location of the University of Arkansas since 1871, had outbid other towns for the railroad by raising $8,000 for promotion and another $2,500 for the construction of a depot. The first depot burned down in 1897, and the present structure was built soon after on the same site.

The depot was totally remodeled and enlarged in 1925, as a result of pressure on the Frisco Line from the Fayetteville City Council. At the height of its use, the station handled six passenger trains a day. The old station was considered inadequate, old-fashioned, and ugly by the day's standards. Construction of the new station paralleled an unprecedented program of expansion at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville; it was needed to handle the influx of new students and increasing use of the facilities by the general population. A larger railroad depot serving Fayetteville was seen as needed by the local government to keep pace with the growth of both the city and the University.

The resulting expansion of the railroad depot was less than the City Council hoped for, however. A forty percent drop in passenger ticket sales in 1925, due to an increase in automobile travel, forced the Frisco line to cut back on the planned square footage of the expansion. After World War II, the advent of air travel and paved highways in Northwest Arkansas caused a drastic decline in railroad travel. The last passenger train left Fayetteville on September 18^th, 1965.

Architecturally, the Frisco depot's Spanish Colonial Revival design is unique for a Fayetteville commercial building. The style was one adopted by the railroad during the post World War I years as a vehicle for promoting travel to California, where Spanish Colonial Revival was enjoying great popularity and with which buildings of that general appearance were associated in the minds of the average American. Frisco used the style as an unofficial trademark for new depots during this period, so it was logically chosen for the remodeling of the Fayetteville facility in 1925.

In the spring of 1987, the property cater-cornered to the depot was proposed as the site of the planned Fayetteville performing arts center, and the depot itself is the target for renovation by local business interests.

Building Description

The Frisco Line Station, built in 1897, and remodeled in 1925, is located on Fayetteville's Dickson Street. This area serves as a link between the University of Arkansas to the west and the central business district to the east, and as such was the center of traffic in the pre-automobile era. The building is simple in plan but unusual in style, as it is one of the only Mission Revival/Pueblo Revival-style buildings in the area.

The Fayetteville Depot is a long, one-story rectangular building in the Mission Revival/Pueblo Revival style. In plan, there is a hierarchy of function along a north-south axis parallel with the railroad line. At the south end is a porte-cochere (covered porch), giving access to the passenger area. The north end of the building is the freight zone. The west side of the building lies along the actual railroad line and represents the embarkation zone.

The building is of stuccoed brick. The upper portions of the exterior are painted a neutral tan with a wainscot of exposed brick from the brick paving surface to a height of 3'6". Above the brick are simple, unadorned flat surfaces, with the exception of ornamental projecting roof beams, or "vigas", and a single row of soldiered brick above each of the double-hung, wood sash windows.

The roof over the passenger area is a red, Spanish-tiled gable roof with mission-style, finial-topped campanille gable ends. Roofs of the porte-cochere and freight areas are flat, surfaced with tar and gravel built-up roofing.

On the west facade, the conical-roofed ticket office "tower" of the original station has been replaced by a tiled roof dormer and facade that echoes the north and south gable ends.

The interior of the passenger area featured the waiting room for whites at the south end, separated from the "colored" waiting area at the north end by the ticket office. A narrow hall runs along the east side of the ticket office and connects the two waiting areas. Auxiliary rooms (offices, rest rooms) are loaded along the east side of the waiting rooms and corridor.