Rock Island Passenger Train Depot, Weldon Arkansas
The town of Weldon grew to any noteworthy size only after the Civil War, when several families located here along what was one of the principal local overland routes between Jacksonport on the White River and Augusta, Brinkley, and other communities to the south. Good farmland and plentiful stands of timber provided the principal means of income for most of the early residents.
Not surprisingly, the fledgling Brinkley and Batesville Railroad also chose to construct their rail line along the established highway, though the line from Brinkley terminated at Jacksonport and was never constructed through to Batesville. The growing Chicago, Rock Island and Southern Railroad (known as the Rock Island) purchased the line by the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, and constructed their own depots along the route thereafter.
After sitting abandoned for many years, the station was demolished in 2011.
Building Description
The Rock Island Depot in Weldon is a single-story, wood frame passenger and freight railroad depot constructed circa 1913 in a restrained interpretation of the Craftsman style. A composition-shingled gable roof with wide eaves and long Craftsman brackets cover the weatherboard-clad frame walls. The rectangular depot, with a projecting telegrapher's bay, is fenestrated with four-over-four double-hung windows. A single brick chimney rises through the gable ridge toward the southern end of the building, and the entire structure is supported upon log blocks.
The eastern elevation features a telegrapher's bay placed toward the southern end of the building that is surrounded by four-over-four wood sash windows, and which is itself lighted with identical windows. A single, large freight door relieves the wall to the north. The western elevation opposite is accessed by a single, large freight door to the north and lighted by three four-over-four wood sash windows to the south.
The northern elevation is punctuated only by a single window opening (now boarded-up) in the center; the southern elevation is accessed via a single-leaf entrance with a transom to the west and lighted by a single window to the east.
Significant exterior details are limited to the knee braces that ornament the side gable cornice on both elevations. The building was in poor condition through deterioration, and was torn down in 2011.