Missouri-Pacific Railroad Depot, Malvern Arkansas
The city of Malvern was little more than a small town until the arrival of the Cairo and Fulton Railroad in 1873 made it the transfer point for travelers going by coach to Hot Springs, twenty miles to the northwest; the arrival of the "Diamond Jo" Railroad to Hot Springs in 1875 only increased the traffic and activity in and around the town. Soon thereafter, the abundant local forests made Malvern a transportation center for the region's burgeoning timber industry, and several mills located nearby. By the turn of the century, Malvern also boasted one of the state's largest brick and tile manufacturing facilities, shipping an assortment of clay products by rail throughout the south and Midwest.
The Missouri-Pacific Railroad Depot in Malvern was constructed c. 1917 after the Missouri-Pacific Railroad had acquired the old St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern line that ran between Missouri and Texas as part of the Missouri-Pacific Railroad's ambitious campaign to expand its network of rail lines all over the country, and to establish the railroad's corporate identity through the exclusive use of the Italianate/Mediterranean style of architecture for its passenger and freight depots.
Building Description
The Missouri-Pacific Railroad Depot in Malvern is a one-and-one-half story, brick masonry freight and passenger depot designed in the Mediterranean style that was the architectural idiom of choice for several of the railroad lines that traversed Arkansas during the early twentieth century, but especially for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad. Its plan features separate passenger and freight buildings that are divided by an open breezeway yet united into a single structure by a continuous, hipped, asphalt shingle roof. The passenger section is rectangular in plan, as its western elevation is augmented with a telegrapher's bay. A single brick chimney rises through the eastern slope of the roof, just to the north of the open passageway between the two sections of the depot. The roof and walls are supported throughout by a continuous cast concrete foundation.
The eastern or front elevation is divided into the enclosed section to the north and the formerly-open porch area to the south. The porch has been enclosed with masonite and wood framing to shelter the area for passengers using the Amtrak service that still operates through this route. A single-leaf entry with a transom accesses the enclosed brick wall to the north, and two pairs of one-over-one wood sash windows, each with its own transom, lead to another single-leaf entrance with a transom placed near the center of the facade. A large, tri-partite wood window lights the wall to the north, which is followed by another single-leaf entrance with a transom, another one-over-one wood sash window with a transom, and a smaller, one-over-one wood sash window. A large expanse of blank wall (which appears to have been filled in at some point, possibly to replace the former location of a large freight door) leads to a large, rolling freight door and a horizontal, five-pane awning window that finishes the elevation.
The western elevation opposite is composed of the former porch at the southern end, which on this elevation is open, and the enclosed section to the north, with its projecting telegrapher's bay and flanking entrance stoops. The wall to the north of the open passageway is lighted with a pair of one-over-one wood sash windows that are followed by two pairs of taller one-over-one wood sash windows, each of which is surmounted by its own transom. A single-leaf entrance with a transom accesses the wall next to the projecting telegrapher's bay and behind the low concrete stair platform with its curving stoop. The two sides of the telegrapher's bay are each lighted with a single, narrow one-over-one wood sash window with a transom, and the front is lighted with a tri-partite wood window consisting of a larger central one-over-one wood sash window being flanked by two narrower windows of identical sash configuration, and all of which have horizontal transom windows. The hipped wall dormer above shelters the segmental arch above the large window below and is decorated only with the concrete keystone and springers. Another single-leaf entrance, identical to the one to the south of the telegrapher's bay, accesses the wall to the north of the bay, and is also entered via a low concrete step platform set behind a curving brick stoop. A one-over-one wood sash window is placed to the north, next to a smaller one of identical sash configuration. A large expanse of blank wall extends to the north, and the elevation is finished by a large, rolling cargo door and a horizontal opening for an awning window (now boarded-over).
The southern elevation, originally the open porch, is now filled with masonry panels set into wood framing to provide shelter for waiting passengers. A single, central window lights this new construction. The northern elevation is accessed only via a large, rolling cargo door placed at the western end of the elevation, with a wooden platform and stairway extending out from it.
Significant exterior details include the Italianate wood cornice brackets that adorn both the main cornice and the cornice of the hipped dormer above the telegrapher's bay and the concrete water table that continues around the entire structure.
The Missouri-Pacific Railroad Depot in Malvern continues to be used by the Union-Pacific Railroad as a freight depot, and by Amtrak as a passenger shelter. It is in good condition.
View from north (1991)
