Combination Passenger and Freight Railroad Station in GA
Western and Atlantic Depot, Dalton Georgia
The Western and Atlantic Depot is the oldest standing commercial structure in Dalton and commemorates the founding of the town and its origins as a trade center on the Western and Atlantic line. The depot is all that remains of the original center of town.
The railroad link from Atlanta to Chattanooga was completed in 1850, and the depot was constructed in 1852 on a piece of land that Mark Thornton had deeded to the state of Georgia in 1846 to be used solely to establish a railroad station. Thornton deeded the land surrounding the depot to Edward White, an entrepreneur from Massachusetts who proceeded to lay out a town with the envisioned depot as its center. White named the town "Dalton" after his mother's family and sold lots to businessmen for stores and small industries. The railroad did indeed bring prosperity to the new town and Dalton thrived as a commercial center until the war years.
The W. & A. Depot played a role in the famous Locomotive Chase of 1862 when Andrew's Raiders stole the "General" and were pursued north by the "Texas", which ran backwards. Edward Henderson, a seventeen-year-old telegraph operator, was dropped off the Texas in Dalton to wire ahead to Chattanooga and warn of the Raider's approach.
According to a letter from L. & N. Railroad officials, the depot might have been partially destroyed when Union troops entered Dalton and set fire to several buildings in 1862. It appears that the essential structure of the depot was not damaged and the restoration was confined to roof and interior repair. Since the ornamental brackets are stylistically later than the date of the rest of the building, they likely replaced others lost in the destruction.
Building Description
The Western and Atlantic Depot is a structure dating from 1852. Its layout and design reflect its original function as a "combination" depot, handling both freight and passengers. At present the depot is leased to the L. & N. Railroad which uses a portion of the passenger section as locker space for employees.
The east side of the depot lines up with the tracks, and the west side faces what is now a parking lot but used to be a loading lot with access to one of the town's main streets. The north end of the depot has a door to an elevated freight platform, a fairly recent structure, and the south end still maintains its appearance as a passenger entrance and ticket office.
A shallow-hipped roof sits atop the one-story, rectangular planned brick structure, with overhanging eaves typical of depot architecture. The eaves are supported by beautiful Italianate brackets which are placed in pairs around the building atop brick pilasters that divide the facades into bays. The east and west facades have five elliptically arched loading doors, one in a bay between two blind bays in sequence. The southernmost bays on both east and west sides are occupied by two conventional 6 X 6 windows with stone lintels and sills, indicating the passenger service function of that quarter of the building. The east side has, in addition, a door with a stone lintel and another window. Both the door and window are now boarded up.
The highly ornamental brackets contrast with the simplicity of ornamentation in the building itself which is done with the contours of the pilasters and their protruding caps, the protruding panels between brackets, and radiating voussoirs, still of brick, of the loading door arches. Placed as they are above the pilasters, the brackets can be read as capitals from a distance.
The southern facade is framed by two pilasters at the corners but none in the middle. A doorway with simple wooden pilasters and a Tuscan entablature is flanked by two windows on each side, which are the same 6 X 6 windows with stone lintels and sills. The door itself is wooden.
The interior of the building follows essentially its original plan with the south door opening into a hallway flanked by what used to be the ticket office and passenger waiting room. The hallway leads to a door that opens to the higher level floor of the storage area. The roof beams are visible, and the walls have not been paneled or insulated. The floor is concrete.
Southwest room (1977)
East facade (1977)
South facade (1977)
Track side facade (1977)
