Railroad Freight Station and Passenger Station in FL

Union Depot and Atlantic Coast Line Freight Station, Live Oak Florida

Date added: November 11, 2023 Categories: Florida Train Station Passenger Station Freight Station

Railroads were responsible for the founding and development of the town of Live Oak, Florida. The community was established as the junction of north/south and east/west systems in the later 19^th century and became an important center for the shipping of lumber, turpentine, and other agricultural products. This activity reached its peak during the first decades of the 20^th century.

The first rail line to come through the area was the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad. It was incorporated on January 8, 1853, and authorized to construct a line from Pensacola in west Florida to the Georgia line north of Jacksonville on the Atlantic coast. Another company, the Florida Atlantic and Gulf Central, began construction in the same year on a route from Jacksonville to Lake City, a community southeast of Live Oak." However, since this route duplicated part of that already occupied by the other line, it was decided to begin construction at Lake City and build westward. Work on the line was delayed until 1856, when negotiations with a New York firm were made to purchase the rail necessary to lay the 105-mile road between Lake City and Tallahassee, the state capital. Work on the new roadbed began in 1857, but a yellow fever epidemic brought operations to a halt, and the laying of track did not commence until May 8^th, 1860. By July, the track extended to Madison, a town halfway between Lake City and Tallahassee., In November 1861 the line opened, and it was possible to board the train in Tallahassee and arrive at Lake City seven and a half hours later.

In early 1861, the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad began constructing a spur northward to Dupont Junction, Georgia, from that point on the line that was to become the city of Live Oak at that time, there was only a rest stop under a live oak tree near a pond. The seat of Suwannee County, now in Live Oak, was then at the town of Houston, six miles further west. Before any track could be laid, however, Florida had seceded from the Union on January 10^th, and after the outbreak of the Civil War, no rail could be obtained from the northern industrial states. Most work on Florida's still-developing rail system was brought to a standstill. The spur was eventually completed by the Confederate government in March 1865, but the opening of the section proved of no military value as the war ended a month later.

After the war, Florida's railroads underwent numerous reorganizations. The Pensacola and Georgia Railroad sold the spur between Live Oak and Dupont Junction to the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad of Georgia in 1866. The Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad was sold and renamed the Florida Central Railroad in 1868. In 1869, the main line of the Pensacola and Georgia line was reincorporated as the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad.

Live Oak began to take shape as a community during this period. The Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad took control of the Florida Central line in 1870. Large volumes of vegetables and other agricultural products began to pass through the community on the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad, and this decade saw the beginnings of the development of the turpentine industry in the area.

In 1879, Henry Bradley Plant, founder of the Southern Express Company and developer of much of Florida's rail system during the last two decades of the nineteenth century, decided to use Live Oak as a conduit for his rail lines into peninsular Florida. He bought the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad, reorganizing it as the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway. In 1881, he founded two new lines that were to directly affect the fortunes of the small community: the Live Oak and Rowland's Bluff and the Live Oak, Tampa and Charlotte Harbor Railroads. The ultimate goal of these lines and others he added to the system was a route from Savannah, Georgia, on the eastern seaboard to Tampa, Florida, a port on the Gulf of Mexico. All of the segments of the Plant System were eventually consolidated into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902.

The east/west route through Suwannee County underwent various changes also. The Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile line became the Florida Central and Western Railroad Company. Further mergers took place in 1385 and 1889, finally resulting in the creation of the Seaboard Air Line in 1903.

There were also locally owned and operated lines based in Live Oak. Among these was the Live Oak, Luraville and Deadman's Bay line Railroad founded in 1893. This line was absorbed by the Live Oak, Perry and Gulf Railroad in 1905. The L.O.P.& G offered passenger services, but its main function was the shipping of lumber milled in the area. Another line was the Suwannee and San Pedro founded in 1903 which was reincorporated as the Florida Railroad in 1915. This company went out of business shortly after World War I. The L.O.P.& G. was purchased by the Southern Railway in 1954 and discontinued service in 1977.

The peak of railroad activity in Live Oak came at the turn of the century. The A.C.L. and S.A.L. had consolidated numerous regional and statewide lines into interstate systems. Local railroad companies were also forming their own inter-county networks. Such well-developed transportation facilities made Live Oak one of the most important lumber and turpentine shipping centers in Florida during the 1900-1905 period. As the population of the community grew, transient passenger traffic on the railroads increased, and the need to build a substantial depot became paramount. A wood frame depot of sorts had been erected in 1896 but had proved inadequate by 1903, and the Live Oak Board of Trade agitated for the construction of a new facility. In response to the volume of freight produced by the cotton and turpentine industries, the Atlantic Coast Line constructed its freight station in that year, but no action was taken on the passenger depot. The first plans for a new passenger facility had to wait until 1907, and in December of that year the city commission voted to order the A.C.L. and S.A.L. to have the new depot completed by August 1908. More delays ensued, however, and the city leaders met with railroad officials on March 2^nd, 1909, and an agreement was reached to begin construction immediately, with the work to be completed within four months. The Suwannee Democrat was finally able to report on April 2^nd that work on the $12,000 building was finally underway. The railroad companies were given one final extension of the completion date, and the depot was finally opened on October 1^st, 1909.

Though they exhibit little of architectural interest, the depot and the freight station are reflective of that period when Live Oak was entirely dependent on the railroad for its economy. The town grew from a village of just a few hundred persons in the 1870s to a city of 3,000 in 1909 when the depot was built. Today the population stands at 6,000, and the importance of the railroad has waned. Many rail lines have been abandoned in Florida over the last two decades and even more will be lost in the next few years. As the railroads have disappeared, depots and other associated structures have been demolished or have fallen into decay.

Site Description

The Union Depot and Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Freight Station are both one-story brick buildings located in close proximity to one another near the intersection of North Ohio Avenue and Haines Street in Live Oak, Florida.

The Union Depot is now sited immediately north of the freight station, but originally lay south of it between the Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic Coast Line tracks. The 1903 freight station and the 1909 passenger depot are both masonry vernacular structures with hints of Romanesque Revival style influences, mainly seen in the segmental arches of the windows and doors. Both are long, rectangular structures that are largely utilitarian in both function and design.

The A.C.L. Freight Station measures approximately 38' x 290' at its base. It is composed of two main sections: the masonry warehouse and a wooden "cotton platform" 115 feet in length, located on the eastern end of the building.

The platform is raised, like the foundation of the warehouse, to facilitate the loading of cotton bales and other freight onto the boxcars which originally docked alongside the south elevation of the station by means of a no longer extant rail spur. The platform is covered with a pitched roof carried by wooden posts at its outer edge.

The masonry section of the building is approximately 175 long and has walls sixteen feet high laid in running bond. The end walls terminate in gable parapets. The eaves of the roof project eight feet on both sides and are supported by knee brackets. The roof is surfaced with composition roll. An eight-foot-wide platform runs along the south side of the building, terminating 44 feet from the west elevation to accommodate a signal pole (no longer extant) and a small flight of wooden steps leading onto the platform.

The building is divided into four sections: the main office at the west end, the large warehouse, a small office next to the "cotton platform," and the platform itself. The front office is now one room but appears to have once been two, or even three. There are chimney flues on the north and south sides of the office, but their stoves have been removed. The north and south walls of the office each have four 6 X 6 light windows, but the west wall has only two, one on either side of the main entrance. There is also one window and a doorway on the east wall separating the office from the warehouse. The wall is constructed of wood.

The Union Depot building is now located approximately 100 feet east of Ohio Avenue, south of Haines Street, and immediately north of the A.C.L Freight Station. The depot was moved from its original site south of the freight Station in 1984. It had been abandoned since May 1971, when passenger rail service was discontinued by the Seaboard Air Line. However, it was sold to a non-profit organization, Pride in Action, in August 1984, for use as the Suwannee County/City of Live Oak Museum and Park Headquarters. The Seaboard tracks are located south of the freight station.

The cross-plan building is approximately 30' x 104' at its base. It is constructed of red brick, laid in running bond, and has a cross hip roof and hipped dormers. The roof is surfaced in clay tile and the sides of the dormers are covered with wood shingles. The main windows of the depot are 1 X 1 double-hung sashes, while the dormers have fixed lattice windows. The eight-foot wide eaves of the roof are supported by knee brackets The windows of the waiting rooms and offices have jack arches, while the baggage room has segmental arches, as do the doors of this section. There is also a narrow belt course that encircles the building just below the level of the windows. There are three chimneys, two for the waiting rooms and one for the ticket office.

Moving from west to east, the interior of the depot consists of four major spaces: the general or "white" waiting room, the ticket agent's office, the secondary or "colored" waiting room, and the baggage room. The most notable changes to the exterior of the depot were made to the baggage room where several doors and windows were enclosed and one new door was added. There have been some alterations to the interior as well. A bill of lading room, entered through the ticket office, now interrupts the volume of the main waiting room, and the secondary waiting room has been partitioned into three offices.

The 28' X 26' general waiting room is the largest interior space in the depot. It has double doors on the north as well as the south. The mantles for the fireplaces in the waiting rooms have been removed, as has a brass rail that was parallel to the ticket window in the main waiting room. The signal poles once located next to the telegraph operator's bays outside the building have been placed in storage.

Much of the original millwork on the interior of the depot is still extant. This includes the wainscoting and door and window moldings. The passenger benches are still found in the main waiting room. Fluorescent lighting fixtures have replaced the original ones, and gas heaters have suplanted the fireplaces for heating.