Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad Depot, St. Joe Arkansas

Date added: April 08, 2025

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The Searcy County community of St. Joe, incorporated in 1902 as a direct consequence of the arrival of the fledgling St. Louis and North Arkansas Railroad, can trace its origins as such to around 1870, the first documented instance of European settlement (local folklore claims a settlement date of 1860, but this cannot be documented). By 1871, St. Joe, located on one of the principle overland routes through the Ozark Mountains to southwestern Missouri, could boast of at least one store and a few other small businesses. Geologists visiting the area after the Civil War to search for both valuable minerals and natural springs soon discovered the rich zinc deposits surrounding St. Joe. Though some mining interests came to St. Joe hoping to find such precious metals as silver, it was the actual presence of significant zinc deposits that transformed St. Joe into one of the zinc mining centers in the Ozarks. Until 1902, however, this natural resource remained largely unexploited due to inadequate transportation to ship the ore out of the mountains and to processing centers.

The arrival of the St. Louis and North Arkansas Railroad in 1902 (which by 1906 had emerged from the first of what would be many financial reorganizations as the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad) and the completion of the line between Leslie to the south and Seligman, Missouri to the north in the following year signaled the beginning of two decades of relative prosperity for St. Joe. The railroad brought with it the means for the shipping of the zinc ore, and mining operations around St. Joe increased dramatically thereafter. The town center shifted approximately 1/2 mile to the east, to the intersection of an old wagon road with the new railroad line. A small commercial district grew along this roadway immediately to the north of the tracks and perpendicular thereto, providing a variety of services to the workers and train passengers that now passed through St. Joe on the railroad.

Unfortunately, due to the severe drop in ore prices that occurred in 1918, the zinc mining boom died a quick death soon thereafter. The mines in both St. Joe and Harrison had folded by 1919, and were not to reopen again. Indeed, the fortunes of most of these Ozark Mountain mining towns paralleled those of the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad that served them, in spite of a spurt of optimistic growth early in the second decade of the twentieth century (during which the St. Joe depot was constructed), the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad was in receivership by 1916, and continued to be plagued by financial problems until the final abandonment of the line in 1962.

It was during the brief period of new construction that the railroad hoped would inspire greater passenger and freight traffic that it built its new depot in St. Joe. Typical of most of the M & NA's depots, the St. Joe depot is a single-story building that is capped by a gable-on-hip roof; it is not elaborately ornamented, which was also typical of M & NA depots.

Building Description

The St. Joe Missouri and North Arkansas (M & NA) Railroad Depot is a single-story, wood-frame depot designed in the simple, Plain Traditional style common for such simple, wood-frame depots. Its gable-on-hip roof covers an essentially rectangular plan, augmented only by the typical telegrapher's bay on the northern elevation. Two red brick chimneys, now removed, formerly rose through the gable peak near the center of the building. Its wood and concrete block foundation and weatherboarded walls support a combination asphalt shingle and standing-seam metal roof.

The northern or trackside elevation is highlighted by the projecting telegrapher's bay placed toward its western end. The front of the telegrapher's bay is fenestrated with a bank of three two-over-two wood windows, while a single narrower window of identical sash configuration lights each of its side walls. Two single-leaf doors flank either side of the telegrapher's bay, and a single window completes the elevation to the west, while two more identical windows extend toward the east, followed by the former location of a large, rolling wooden freight door, now filled. The southern elevation opposite is simpler, as it features only a single-leaf entrance placed toward the western end and an intact rolling wooden freight door placed toward the east, with a four wood frame windows interspersed in between.

The eastern elevation is accessed via a central rolling wooden freight door with three-pane transom and a smaller, single-leaf door to the north. The western elevation retains the northernmost of its original two wood sash windows, though it is now covered with plywood. The southern original window has been removed to allow for a modern freight entrance.

The significant exterior details are limited to the broad, projecting eaves and the simple stick work trim that runs horizontally beneath and above the original windows.

The interior has been changed somewhat in its conversion from an active depot to a feed store; however, it retains a substantial amount of original door and window trim, and much of its original beaded-board wall sheathing.

The St. Joe Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad Depot has suffered only the removal of its two original chimneys, the replacement of one of its western windows with a modern freight loading door, and the partial removal of some interior partitions; otherwise, it is in good condition.