Former Passenger Train Station in AR now Gone

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The railroad town of Wynne was formally settled in 1883 around the intersection of the Memphis & Bald Knob Railroad and Helena & Knobel divisions of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad. The intersection of two major regional railroad lines and the various types of traffic they carried, and the related local activity they encouraged, provided most of the economic vitality to the town into the early twentieth century.

The Missouri-Pacific Railroad Depot in Wynne was constructed in 1911 after the Missouri-Pacific Railroad took ownership of the Memphis and Bald Knob Railroad line. This passenger and freight railroad depot is associated with the Railroad Growth and Development in Arkansas, as a structure financed and erected under the auspices of one of the larger early twentieth-century railroads in the state.

The depot, last owned by Union Pacific, was demolished around 1999.

Building Description

The Missouri-Pacific Depot in Wynne is a single-story, brick and masonry freight and passenger railroad depot constructed 1911-12 in the Mediterranean style with some Craftsman influences. The rectangular plan depot is covered by a ceramic tile gable roof with projecting eaves, exposed rafter ends, and decorative Craftsman brackets. Both the trackside and the opposite side elevations feature a wide, shed-roofed porch that extends nearly the length of the depot and is supported by six Doric columns. A three-sided telegrapher's bay is centered under the porches on both sides - which is somewhat unusual - with a corresponding-width, shed-roofed dormer overhead. The roofline of the porches and the dormers are slightly flared. Other Mediterranean features include a chamfered belt course. Four brick chimneys rise through the ridge of the gable roof, and the entire structure is supported upon a continuous, cast concrete foundation.

The southern elevation is dominated by the full length, shed roof front porch supported upon six Doric columns, and surmounted by the low, shed roof dormer above. The wall beneath the porch roof is divided into a central, projecting entrance bay with flanking wall bays to either side. The entrance bay is accessed via two single-leaf entrances flanked by two single windows, and the sides of the bay are each lighted with a single window. The walls to either side are fenestrated with one-over-one wood sash windows and accessed via a total of three single-leaf doors and two freight doors. The northern elevation opposite features the same porch and colonnade, and the same shed roof dormer, though this porch is actually shorter than the one opposite. The wall beneath the porch roof is also of the same form as the opposite wall, with a central entrance bay projecting from the wall and the door and window placement largely mirroring that of the southern elevation.

The northern and southern elevations are virtually identical, as each is lighted with two symmetrically-placed one-over-one wood sash windows with transoms.

Exterior details include the Doric wood columns on the eastern and western elevations; the wood knee braces around the cornice on all elevations; the formed stone watertable, lintels and sills; and the exposed rafters that run along the eastern and western elevations.

(1991)

(1991)