Boone Santa Fe Railroad Depot, Boone Colorado

Date added: October 04, 2024

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Many communities in Colorado owe their birth and initial development to the railroads. In contrast, Boone, located twenty miles east of Pueblo and about a mile north of the Arkansas River, had a pre-railroad history. The area was one of the earliest settled communities in Pueblo County with some sources citing settlers in the region by 1854. A.G. Boone, a grandson of Daniel Boone, came to Colorado in 1860 and two years later was operating a general merchandise store in Pueblo. He acquired land in the area and was an early Indian Agent on the Arkansas. The Barlow and Sanderson Stage Company ran a stage line from Independence to Santa Fe and established a branch line in 1862 that followed the Arkansas Valley immigrant route to Pueblo. The Boone Place became a stage station. In 1863, in response to a demand for better mail service for the settlement, a United States post office was established and named for the first postmaster--Boone, whose home served as the post office. Originally called Booneville, the name would later be shortened to Boone. In March 1876, the Pueblo and Arkansas Valley branch of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railway was completed, although it was not until 1881 that a siding was established at Boone. The Missouri Pacific Railroad was built to Pueblo in 1888 and its line also went through Booneville.

Initially, the arrival of the railroad brought little change to the community of Booneville. Between 1889 and 1892, business directories included Booneville in the section described as "a list of the small towns & post offices in the state of Colorado where there is at present no business." During these years it was noted that Booneville had a population of 25 and was located along the A.T. & S.F. railroad. In the 1893 directory, Boone [note the name change] was described as a small agricultural town and two businesses, both general merchandisers, were listed. The 1897 directory acknowledged that Boone was on the A.T.& S.F. and Missouri Pacific railways, but the continuing population of 25 and the two general merchandisers indicated that it remained a quiet agricultural community.

Pueblo County experienced a growth spurt during the early 1900s due to successful farming and livestock operations. Boone reflected this change as the 1901 directory now described it as a farming and stock-raising town and the list of businesses expanded to include a blacksmith and railway agent. Rail traffic along the line increased prompting the Santa Fe Railway in 1906 to construct a 12' by 12' manual block tower in Boone.

As the small town continued to prosper (or perhaps in response to the competition from Missouri Pacific), Santa Fe installed a 9' by 33' car body to serve as a freight room in 1910. Second-hand car bodies were a common depot facility along this line of the Santa Fe railroad. Due to joint operations over much of the line and the need for numerous order offices, the company, in an effort to save money, utilized surplus car bodies as offices, waiting rooms, freight houses and operator's quarters.

In addition to farming and stock raising, sugar beets would also become an important factor in Boone's development, as evidenced by the 1913 business directory that described Boone as a "farming, sugar beet and stock raising town" with a population of 100. Perhaps this dramatic rise in population provided the impetus for the railroad to "retire" the block tower and car body and to install the 24' by 60' foot frame combination depot in 1913. The increased revenues generated by the expanding agricultural economy may have also prompted the railroad to construct a more substantial depot. Arthur Filmore, who moved to Boone in 1914 as a child, remembers "both sides of the tracks being lined with dumps of wheat, corn, hay, and melons, as well as cattle pens.

The relationship between the increased rail traffic that prompted the construction of the depot and the growth of the town is clearly illustrated by perusing the business directories between 1913 and 1940. Every year the list of businesses grew, peaking in the mid-1920s and leveling off during the 1930s.

The depot continued to be well-used, especially during World War II when troops and Army materials were regularly ferried through the depot. A popular passenger train, the Colorado Eagle, which traveled from St. Louis to Denver passed through Boone. However, increased automobile traffic and improved roads and highways would ultimately lead to a decline in railroad passenger and freight service. In 1968, the depot was retired and sold to the town of Boone. For many years it was used as a storage building that housed fire equipment and a small museum. Damage to the building serving as the Town Hall in May 1996, forced the city offices to relocate to the depot.

As the Santa Fe Railway built west from Kansas, speed and cost were of primary importance. Cost was important due to the scarcity of traffic along the as yet undeveloped route. With construction funds and operating revenue at a minimum, depot construction was either avoided at most stations or limited to the barest essentials. The first depots were usually nothing more than an office for the telegrapher. At those few locations where an established population base existed, a more substantial frame depot was built as the initial facility. But at isolated stations where revenue traffic was incidental, boxcar bodies, with their trucks removed and placed on basic foundations, would serve as telegraph offices and depots.

This practice of using car body depots would continue through 1937. As communities grew and began to rely on the railroad for supplies, transportation, and communication, the original structures were replaced with larger frame buildings. However, many stations never generated enough revenue to justify a larger building.

Depot development within the Santa Fe Railway's Pueblo District was similar. Along the Pueblo and Arkansas Valley route, manual block towers often appeared as the first step beyond the telegrapher's office. Most of these manual block towers were added in 1906 as traffic growth dictated and generally they were replaced with larger standard depots by 1913. Boone was typical of this progression.

These larger frame depots were designed to address three basic needs: the handling of freight, the handling of passengers and their baggage, and an office for railroad employees. This need was met by the simple three-room frame depot that was built across the country by virtually every railroad. Most railroads, including the Santa Fe, referred to these buildings as "combination depots." Each railroad company sought to develop an identity within the customer's mind by creating distinctive logos that were applied to rolling stock and designing distinctive depots with which the public could readily identify. Each railroad used mainly cosmetic details to differentiate their basic three-room depot from those of the competition.

The basic features of Santa Fe's combination depot were established by 1872. Standard features included wood frame construction, a semi-hexagonal bay window topped with a small gabled roof, substantial wooden roof brackets, pedimented window and door surrounds, and double hung sash windows with six-over-six lights. Only minor changes were made to the basic characteristics during the sixty years these frame depots were built.

Although the Santa Fe had its "depot standards," Pounds notes that more of these buildings were built as variations from the standards than were built strictly to plan. The dimensions of depots are examples of this deviation. Early ("1895") standards set eighteen or twenty-four feet for the width and allowed the length to vary. The "1910" standards set dimensions such as 16'x40', 24'x48', 24'x64', and 24'x80'. Within these basics, there were many variations, most of which occurred in the length. The 24-foot wide by 60-foot long Boone Depot is an example of this pattern.

Building Description

Located near downtown Boone, the Santa Fe Depot is a large wood frame building that runs parallel to both the railroad tracks and Colorado Highway 96. Although the main line has been removed, the depot is adjacent to a railroad siding. The one-story building has a rectangular plan (24-by-60 feet), a foundation of creosote-soaked logs, board and batten siding, and an asphalt shingle roof. The elongated gabled roof is supported by triangular knee braces and the south slope is broken by the gabled roof of the projecting bay. A brick chimney straddles the ridge line. The board and batten siding is painted yellow; the clapboard siding around the base of the building and the trim around the windows and doors is painted light brown.

The building is a "combination" depot designed to handle both passengers and freight and is comprised of two sections. The east end of the depot, with its double-hung wooden sash windows of six-over-six lights, wide surrounds and pedimented window heads, served passengers. The window-less west end with its large door openings handled freight. The bay window that projects from the wall facing the train siding was the station agent's office.

The south side is visible from the highway and the entrance to the building is located on this side at the eastern end via a paneled wooden door with a three-light transom. A large window is beside the door. The operator's bay projects out from the wall with a window on each side (now boarded over) and a pair of windows facing the tracks. The expanse of wall at the larger, west end is broken by a freight door of vertical boards with a six-light transom.

The west side of the building is devoid of any window or door openings, while the east side contains three evenly spaced windows. High on the east wall above the central window (where the Santa Fe logo used to be) is a sign with the words "Town Hall."

The north side has two windows at the east end, one in the passenger section and one in the office portion of the building. The freight door located near the west end is the same vertical board and six-light transom construction as its companion door on the opposite side.

The interior space consists of a passenger room, an office, and the freight area. The passenger room has a 12-foot high ceiling and walls of vertical board with wainscot. A single light fixture hangs from the ceiling and the room is further illuminated by the three windows on the east side and the one on the north. The wood floor of foot-wide planks and the trim around doors and windows is original. A doorway (only the three-light transom remains) leads to the office. The wall material, wainscot and trim continue in this room, which has a dropped ceiling. The built-in ticket counter remains as does the telegrapher's desk within the operator's bay. Another doorway (recently filled with a wood-framed glass door) leads from the office to the freight area, where horizontal foot-wide planks line the walls and the structural roof timbers remain exposed. The room lacks windows but has two large freight doors, one on each of the north and south sides. There are some small holes within the west wall and oral tradition indicates this is where workers hid their whiskey bottles.

The depot has undergone very few alterations. Most of these minor changes were made during the railroad's occupation of the building and none have made any impact on the architectural integrity of the building. Due to decreasing rail traffic, the railroad personnel permanently sealed the track-side freight door and boarded the two side windows of the operator's bay. (The freight door on the north side remains fully functional.) Although the exact date for this change is not known, it did occur before the city acquired the property in 1968. It is not known when the drop ceiling was installed in the office, but it is also believed to have been done by the railroad. In May 1996, when the city offices moved into the building, a door was installed in what had been an open doorway between the office and the freight room.