Missouri-Pacific Railroad Depot, McGehee Arkansas
McGehee, named for the family of Colonel Abner McGehee (a famous local character around the turn of the century), owes virtually its entire existence as a discernible community to the decision by the Missouri-Pacific Railroad to locate its regional railroad shops here in 1905. Even the physical plan of the downtown reflects this, as the entire original commercial district was laid out along the railroad tracks running north-south through the town. Though other industrial and manufacturing concerns established themselves in McGehee thereafter, the Missouri-Pacific Railroad continued to be the largest local employer through the 1930s.
The Missouri-Pacific Railroad Depot in McGehee was constructed c. 1910 as part of the Missouri-Pacific Railroad's ambitious campaign to expand their 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 McGehee 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 early twentieth century, but especially for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad. Its plan is cruciform, with the telegrapher's bay projecting from its northeastern elevation balanced by a projecting bay opposite. An open porch is located at its eastern end, beneath the hipped roof. A single brick chimney, with its shoulders and cap coped in concrete, rises through the northwestern slope of the northwestern hipped roof. Its hipped, red clay tile roof and brick walls are supported upon a continuous, cast concrete foundation.
The northeastern or front elevation is composed of four principal wall bays and an open porch at the southeastern end. The wall bay to the west is blank except for a single rolling freight door, surmounted by a five-pane transom. The wall bay next toward the east is lighted by a single one-over-one wood sash window with a single-pane, horizontal transom, followed by a single-leaf entry with a transom, and three more windows of sash configuration identical to the one seen earlier. The central, projecting wall bay is lighted with three symmetrically placed one-over-one wood sash windows. The final wall bay toward the east is lighted with two more one-over-one wood sash windows, each with a transom. The open porch roof to the southeast is supported upon two single, square wood posts set upon brick piers attached to the southeastern wall and two "L"-shaped brick piers coped with concrete, one at each exterior corner, each of which carries three square wood posts that rise to the roof plate. A later, hipped roof, single-story compatible addition is attached to the southeastern elevation.
The southwestern elevation opposite is also composed of four principal wall bays, with an open porch at the southeastern end. The westernmost bay is punctuated only by a single rolling door. The wall bay toward the east is lighted by a single one-over-one wood sash window with a single-pane, horizontal transom, followed by two single-leaf entrances. The telegrapher's bay is lighted by two single one-over-one wood sash windows with transoms on its front face, while each of the side faces are lighted with single one-over-one wood sash windows. The parapeted, stepped wall dormer above is lighted by a single, central vent opening. The wall bay toward the east is lighted by two one-over-one wood sash windows with transoms flanking a single-leaf door with a transom.
The southeastern elevation is composed of the hipped porch roof and the wall of the enclosed portion of the structure recessed beneath. The wall is lighted with two single one-over-one wood sash windows flanking a central single-leaf entry, all of which are surmounted by horizontal, single-pane transoms. The northwestern elevation opposite is lighted by a pair of small, one-over-one wood sash windows, placed symmetrically in the elevation.
Significant exterior details include the large, Italianate brackets that adorn both the spreading cornice throughout the building and the wooden porch supports at the southeastern end; the concrete lintels and sills at most of the window and door openings; and the large, stepped, parapeted Spanish roof dormer above the telegrapher's bay on the northeastern elevation.
View from north (1990)
View from west (1990)
