Lyons Railroad Depot, Lyons Colorado
- Categories:
- Colorado
- Railroad Facility
- Passenger Station
The Lyons Railroad Depot was built in the summer of 1885 by Mark Boyd, a Longmont contractor and builder. It is one of the few remaining buildings which survive from the early days of the town and symbolizes the economic and social development of the area.
In 1884, a narrow gauge track was brought in to Lyons by the Denver, Utah and Pacific Railroad to ship the sandstone which formed the base of the town's economy. In about 1888, it was replaced by wide gauge track, operated by the Union Pacific.
By 1890 over a thousand tons of sandstone from the nearby quarries were being shipped daily from the Lyons station. The stone was widely used for buildings, not only in Colorado and neighboring states, but in San Francisco, Chicago and New York as well. During this period, Lyons ranked third in the nation in stone production.
The depot also presided over the shipment of various ores mined in the district. Almost four million dollars worth of gold from the Smuggler and Golden Age mines was shipped from Lyons.
In 1893 the quarries began to decline; partly because building construction suffered in the financial panic of that year and then gradually but steadily from the use of the new and cheaper material, concrete.
Fortunately, the scenic beauty of the area was beginning to attract passenger travel to supplement the dwindling freight traffic. By 1895, the railroad was operated by the Burlington and Missouri, running two trains daily. Excursions from Denver to Lyons were immensely popular and summer picnickers filled Meadow Park, just west of the depot.
In 1908 the Burlington railroad in conjunction with the Stanley auto line began offering passenger service to Estes Park and the first summer visitors and residents of the park began alighting at the Lyons depot, collecting their trunks and boxes (and in some cases the family dog) from the baggage cars and transferring to automobiles for the ascent up the canyon to Estes Park.
Use of the railroad declined during the 1930's and the depot has been unoccupied for many years.
Building Description
The architecture of the Lyons depot was typical of the late 19th century, simple in lines, with the conventional bay window to facilitate vision up and down the track by the station agent; a more or less standard station design.
The depot is one story, with a crawl space above the ceiling reached by a small trap door. The small rectangular building is divided into three rooms: a waiting room for passengers, occupying the west third, a smaller space in the midsection used by the Station Agent, and the east end used for baggage storage.
The walls are solid Lyons sandstone, known locally as Colorado Pink, almost eighteen inches thick. The roof, of galvanized metal strips in a simulated shingle pattern, is center-gabled. The eaves project from the wall, with exposed rafters running longitudinally; the verges are projecting and undecorated. All the windows are flat topped, double-sashed and double-hung, set off by sandstone lintels and lug sills. The side trim filling the depth of the eighteen-inch walls is plain but looks almost like a recessed window because of the unusual wall thickness. The door to the waiting room is off-center, to the west of the bay window, while a wider door opens into the baggage room east of the bay window.
The main passengers' entrance is flat topped with a plain paneled door with embrasure, while the plank door entering the baggage room is set in an arched opening with radiating voussoirs. There are no side panels nor transom panels used in the building. The small, over-the-ceiling crawl space called for no stairs and required a ladder to enter, eleven feet above the floor.
The waiting room and ticket office are plastered, above a three-foot-high wainscoting, while the bare stone walls form the unfinished interior of the baggage room. The floor of the waiting room and the ticket agent's office have tongue-and-groove flooring while the baggage room floor is plank. A chimney starts four feet from the ceiling in the partition separating the waiting room and ticket office and is straddle-ridge single stack type. The chimney has two stove pipe openings to accommodate stoves in both waiting room and ticket office.
The stone work is in excellent condition throughout and the roof has only one small spot where wind has done some damage, over the south bay window. The depot is wired throughout, with large hanging, globe-type lights in all three rooms and a wall plug in the baggage room. The building is provided with a sewer connection but no lavatory facilities.
Old pictures reveal that in early times a roofed-over baggage platform stood against the east end. Presumably baggage carts and large pieces of freight were stored in this area.
The depot stands in an open area with no other buildings within 350 feet. The nearest building is the Lyons city hall.
View of the south side, showing the tracks in foreground. The door and window on left open into the waiting room, used by arriving/departing passengers, bay window for use of station agent to observe trains. Doorway to baggage room in shadow (1974)
View of the north side of the Lyons Depot. On the left is the baggage room door used for receiving outgoing freight and discharging incoming freight. In the center is the bay window of the station agent's office. To the right is the rear door to the waiting room (1974)
