Former St. Louis Southwestern Train Station in AR

Cotton Belt Railroad Depot, Fordyce Arkansas

Date added: September 08, 2024

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The St. Louis Southwestern Railroad, commonly known as the Cotton Belt, has been one of the longest-running railroads in Arkansas. In fact, it was the Texas and St. Louis Railway Company that in 1886 first brought a rail line through this city (the Rock Island Railroad, who built the Fordyce Depot, came through Fordyce considerably later), and eventually spurred the relocation of the county seat to Fordyce from its former location in Princeton, approximately twenty miles to the northwest. The prosperity brought to the city of Fordyce and the surrounding agricultural region by the Cotton Belt (and the Rock Island line) necessitated the replacement of the earlier wood frame depot with this brick depot by 1925.

The Southern Pacific Railroad assumed control of the St. Louis Southwestern on April 14^th, 1932 and operated it as a subsidiary until 1992, when the Southern Pacific consolidated the Cotton Belt's operations into the parent company. Southern Pacific merged with Union Pacific Railroad in 1996.

Building Description

Elaboration

The Cotton Belt Railroad Depot in Fordyce is a single-story, brick masonry freight and passenger railroad depot designed in the Mediterranean/Craftsman transitional style that was growing in popularity among the railroad lines that traversed Arkansas during the third decade of the twentieth century. Its plan is fundamentally rectangular, with an open porch at its eastern end and a telegrapher's bay projecting from its southern elevation. Three interior brick chimneys rise through the roof: one projects through the southern slope of the hipped roof and just to the west of center; the second projects from the northern slope of the roof, on center; and the third rises through the ridge, to the west of the eastern hip. Its slate roof and brick walls are supported upon a continuous, cast concrete foundation.

The northern or front elevation is composed of a single, small six-over-two wood sash window placed next to the eastern porch, followed by four identical, larger six-over-two wood sash windows. Another small, six-over-two window is placed just to the west of center, and the remainder of the wall to the western end of the elevation is blank except for the large, rolling freight door placed near the western end. The southern elevation opposite features a row of four large, six-over-two wood sash windows in the wall just to the west of the open porch, and a single-leaf opening just to the east of the projecting telegrapher's bay. The eastern side of the telegrapher's bay is lighted with a single narrow window, the southern side is lighted with two large six-over-two wood sash windows, and the western side is blank. The wall to the west of the telegrapher's bay is accessed by a large, rolling freight door and a single-leaf door toward the western end; it is otherwise blank.

The western elevation is punctuated only by a large, central rolling freight door that is accessed by a wood loading dock; the eastern elevation opposite, recessed beneath the porch roof, is lighted by two symmetrically placed six-over-two wood sash windows.

Significant exterior details include the relatively elaborate Craftsman brackets that extend around the cornice and that ornament the brick columns that support the porch roof; the corbelled brick wall brackets that support the wood trusses; and the unusual six-over-two wood sash windows.

The Cotton Belt Depot in Fordyce is currently closed and unoccupied; however, it is in good condition.