Former Western & Atlantic Railroad Train Station in Calhoun GA

Calhoun Depot, Calhoun Georgia

Date added: May 31, 2025

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The Calhoun Depot; built in 1852-53, represents an antebellum depot designed and built to serve its essential functions. Its simple lines and fundamental, utilitarian styling exemplify the early, unpretentious frontier times of North Georgia in which it was created. The Western and Atlantic Railroad was completing its route from Atlanta to Chattanooga and at the completion of each stretch of track, the State of Georgia built depots. Because they were brick or stone, they survived the ravages of the subsequent Civil War. Carved from Indian territory in the 1830's, the area first became Cass (later Bartow) County. As settlers arrived and population grew, the Oothcalooga community was selected as the county seat when the area became Gordon County in 1850.

The town was renamed Calhoun shortly thereafter, in 1851. The selection of the site for a railroad stop was a prime factor in its later becoming the county seat. The railroad served as a major travel artery, as well as a supply line during the Civil War. It was also part of one of the war's most famous events, during the Great Locomotive Chase. The State-operated W & A Line was leased since 1890 to the L & N Railroad. Passenger service was discontinued in the 1960s.

The Western and Atlantic Railroad was unusual in the fact that when it was incorporated in 1836 it was owned and operated by the State of Georgia. Construction of the tracks from what became Atlanta to Chattanooga began in 1838 and took 13 years to complete. As major points were reached along the way, depots were constructed at locations that decades later became famous as Civil War battle sites. The lines reached Dalton in 1847 and Chattanooga in 1850. Between Atlanta and Chattanooga, substantial depots were eventually constructed at Marietta, Cartersville, Kingston, Calhoun, Resaca, Dalton, Tunnell Hill, and Ringgold. All of these were built of brick or stone and existed in 1891. In some cases, small, wooden buildings were first built, but these were gradually replaced where needed. The Chief Engineer reported in September 1850 the need for stone depots in Kingston and Calhoun. A year later the need was again emphasized for these two towns. The buildings were begun by the September 1852 report. At the end of the Civil War the report of those depots destroyed did not include Calhoun and in fact indicated that the substantial depots in Kingston, Calhoun, Resaca, Dalton, and Ringgold among others had only to be repaired and have new wooden platforms built.

In the 1891 report, the brick depot at Calhoun was described much as it remains today: 38 by 124 feet, 18 feet high, with 16-inch thick walls, and a platform 12 feet wide in front and 10 feet wide on other sides. It was valued at $5,000. The Ringgold and Dalton depots were both constructed by 1852.

North Georgia was opened for white settlement in the mid 1830's after the Cherokee Indians were removed and the Land Lottery of 1832 held to distribute the land. Cass County (later Bartow) was created in 1832 and included the site of the depot. When the railroad came through in 1846-7 the small town of Oothcalooga grew up around the depot built there. On February 13^th, 1850 a law went into effect creating Gordon County out of Cass and on June 3^rd, 1850 the Inferior Court of the new county set the county seat at Oothcalooga Depot, renaming it Calhoun. Despite rival claims for another town to be the county seat, it has remained Calhoun to this day. John P. King was president of the Georgia Railroad and also landowner of the area around the present depot when he sold to the state in March 1850, a parcel of land to be used as a depot that was 515 feet long and 200 feet wide.

Railroad was the key form of transportation in the 19^th Century and the new town of Calhoun prospered with its new brick depot. The railroad was important during the Civil War as a supply line and was later captured by Federal forces. The Great Locomotive Chase occurred with the capture of a train in what is now Kennesaw, Georgia and its running north along the rails past Calhoun to Ringgold where another train caught up with it.

The line was leased in 1890 to the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway; later it became part of the L & N Railroad, as it still is. Passenger service was discontinued in the 1960s but the railroad still uses part of the building for freight. In 1979 the Georgia Senate resolved to convey or lease the depot and immediate property to the City of Calhoun, presumable for adaptive use, but no further action has been taken in this regard.

Building Description

The Calhoun Depot is a one-story, brick building built to house railroad passengers and freight. It includes an office, waiting room, freight warehouse and adjacent exterior loading platform. It is adjacent to the railroad tracks leading from Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The brick exterior includes brick piers at the corners of the building as well as at various intervals on each side. The bricks are indented to form arches for the entrances into the freight room. Other doorways have simple, flat stone lintels. The rebuilt ticket window, formerly a bay window, retains two double Queen Anne-style windows inset into the wall with wood surrounds. The overhanging flat roof has tongue and groove paneling in the soffit and rests on the building without any roof brackets. There is a loading platform around part of the building, primarily on the railroad track side, with a small platform on the street side. The building rests on a stone foundation.

The interior of the depot is divided into a large freight room or warehouse, the office, and the original two waiting rooms, now made into one room. The freight room is large with an exposed beam ceiling. It has large wooden sliding doors on three sides and a wooden floor. The original scales still remain in the room. It has no interior ornamentation. The office, which is between the freight room and the waiting room, covers the width of the building (approximately 38 feet) and is 16 feet wide. It has tongue and groove vertical wainscoting and two windows, one facing outside and the other into the waiting room. The ceiling has been lowered and covered in acoustical tile and the floor covered with linoleum. The waiting room was originally two rooms but later the interior partition was removed, making one room. Even later, part of this room was divided off to create restrooms and a boiler room. The depot retains its original roof line and exposed structural beams in the freight room.

The depot is situated on a flat lot in the center of the town of Calhoun adjacent to the railroad tracks. It is surrounded by commercial establishments on all sides. There is no landscaping but there is a parking area adjacent to the depot. There are no outbuildings.

Changes to the property are known from comparing a 1910 photograph and floorplan to the current building. The building has been painted from its original red brick state. The south end remains much the same on the exterior save for the loss of the platform that once led from the waiting room doors to street level. On the east side, part of the loading platform has been removed, the bay window has been flattened against the depot with two of the windows being retained as well as two of the panels underneath. Part of the bay window space became another outside doorway. One of the two windows out of the southeast corner waiting room has been converted to a doorway. Qn the north end of the freight room, another large sliding doorway has been cut and a door added. Although the 1910 photograph does not show the west side, from the floorplan it can be determined that exterior doors have been added to the office and waiting room. The door added to the office was centered in the exterior pier, while the one for the waiting room used part of an original window space and then a new window was cut farther north. Interior changes include the removal of the waiting room partition and the addition of restrooms and boiler room.