Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Passenger Depot, Council Bluffs Iowa

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The 1899 Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad passenger depot in Council Bluffs is the last extant passenger depot in a town that once had eight such depots. Council Bluffs was assured its status as a major railroad gateway to the West when, in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln decided the transcontinental railroad would cross the Missouri River at this site. Thereafter, most of the trans-Iowa railroads funneled their lines through the town for the river crossing and connections west. During the peak years of the 1890s, no fewer than 15 railroad lines operated 90 trains a day through town.

In early 1899, the Rock Island undertook to tear down its old depot in Council Bluffs and erect a new one on the same site as part of a major capital improvement project. Financed by a huge bond issue, and spurred by the prosperous times generally enjoyed by railroads after the panic of 1893, the Rock Island replaced many of its older depots in Iowa with sturdy new brick depots such as the one in Council Bluffs. The Romanesque depot, based on a standard plan and built largely from standard materials, represented for the Rock Island the culmination of decades of railroad building across the Midwest. It projected a successful corporate image that the railroad wanted customers to associate with it, whether they happened to be in Illinois, Iowa or Oklahoma. For Council Bluffs, the depot represented the revival of prosperity for one of the town's major industries and a welcome upgrade of passenger facilities.

Following President Lincoln's decision, the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River railroad (later absorbed by the Chicago & North Western) was the first railroad to reach Council Bluffs from the east in 1867. As such it became "the first to link the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, the first to couple Chicago and Council Bluffs." Later that same year, Council Bluffs was connected by rail to Saint Louis, Missouri, with the completion of the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph railroad. Two years later, in 1869, Council Bluffs not only saw the arrival of both the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad and the Rock Island, but it also became a major freight and passenger stop with the completion of the transcontinental railroad.

The strategic position held by Council Bluffs at the crossroads of the continent meant that much of the town's economic and land-use history developed around the construction, removal, expansion, and relocation of railroad-related facilities. The similar location held by Omaha, Nebraska, across the river, however, meant that Council Bluffs did not occupy that strategic position by itself. Rather, Council Bluffs competed with Omaha for the various passenger and freight facilities needed by the multiple railroads passing through it. It also meant the railroads had a good bargaining position for how much and how well they provided services. The Union Pacific, for example, acquired 1200 acres of land in Council Bluffs in 1867 and agreed to build freight and passenger facilities there. In exchange, Council Bluffs provided the right-of-way needed by the UP to build its bridge across the Missouri River and over $200,000 in bonds. To attract the CB&Q in 1868, Council Bluffs residents donated the land for its passenger and freight stations.

By the 1890s, the landscape around and within Council Bluffs was dotted with passenger and freight depots, rail yards, shops, and roundhouses, all strung together with miles of trackage. Passenger depots, however, were far from being first rate and some lines failed to provide any facility at all. So uncomfortable and shabby were the depots, the city and citizens of Council Bluffs joined together in 1891 to seek relief from the state Board of Railroad Commissioners. In a complaint filed against eight railroad companies, the mayor and city council joined in a similar petition by fifty citizens and business firms) stated:

The complaint asked that all of the named railroads be " … compel[led] … to erect, equip and maintain their several roads with suitable passenger depots in this, the city of Council Bluffs".

A year and a half later, after several inspection trips by the Commissioners traveling to Council Bluffs from Des Moines and delays resulting from negotiations and political changes, the Commissioners issued their order. The CNW, which already had plans to build a new depot when the complaint was filed, was found to have nearly completed a "commodious brick passenger depot … of convenient access by electric street car line … " which would provide "ample protection and comfort" for its passengers. Each of the other lines' facilities were analyzed and orders issued. The Commissioners' concern that passengers be afforded the benefits and protection of modern plumbing, heating and lighting was apparent. The CB&Q for example shared an old frame depot with the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs. That facility had only one waiting room, no "water closet" or "wash stand" and was "dilapidated and very much out of repair and in no way suited for the purpose for which it is used". The CB&Q was ordered to construct a new depot within four months.

The Rock Island did not fare well in the Commissioners' assessment either:

The Commissioners were careful to fashion a conservative remedy for the conditions of each railway's specific situation. Yet they could not resist raising as a standard the Rock Island's new passenger depot, then (1892) under construction in Lincoln, Nebraska:

The description of the Lincoln depot bears many similarities in plan to those eventually constructed by the Rock Island in Council Bluffs and other towns along its line in the late 1890s. National events occurring shortly after the Commissioners' 1892 report likely cut short or delayed the Rock Island's resolve to upgrade its older depot facilities. The Panic of 1893 and the Pullman Strike of 1894 led to a reduction of railroad construction generally and resulted in an economic depression that did not end until 1896. By 1897, however, having survived a depression that ruined many smaller railroads, the Rock Island planned a reorganization of its debts and readied itself for moving forward to upgrade its physical facilities. On January 1^st, 1898, it issued "a general mortgage of $100,000,000 to the Central Trust Company of New York and George Sherman, to secure an issue of general mortgage gold bonds to be used in retiring all outstanding bonds, and providing for additions to, and betterments and extensions of, the road."

By early April 1899, when the Rock Island began to tear down the old frame depot that had stood for so many years at the south end of Main Street, the economy in Council Bluffs as elsewhere was in a strong recovery. The editor of the Council Bluffs newspaper, the Daily Nonpareil, waxed enthusiastic about their new railroad-generated prospects: "That Council Bluffs should be the objective point of a number of railroads that are now building and others that are proposed, has aroused the attention of (other business] investors … " and cited the "construction of railroad passenger and freight depots, three of which will be built here this summer, two of them being already underway" (Daily Nonpareil, 08 April 1899).

Today, only the Rock Island passenger depot remains. The other Passenger depots are gone, as are the historic shops, roundhouses and freight depots, made obsolete over the years by changes in technology and the construction of the nation's highway system. The Chicago & Northwestern passenger depot, subject of the Commissioners' approval in 1892, was replaced by a newer, smaller Station in 1953. The CB&Qs 1893 passenger depot, built under orders of the Commissioners, was purchased in 1972 by Blue Star Foods which stated plans to remodel the building (Daily Nonpareil, 13 June 1972). However, five months later the business announced it would demolish the depot to make a parking lot (Daily Nonpareil, 16 November 1972).

The railroads that survived the reorganizations and consolidations of the early 1890s thrived during what is now called "The Golden Age of Steam Railroading," from about 1890 to about 1920. Nearly every major rail company expanded and invested in its line in Iowa, replacing bridges and depots and building an inventory of yard structures based on specific functions. This period of expansion and Prosperity was tied directly to the growth of agriculture in the Midwest and the rise of industries, such as meat-packing and steel and iron works, which utilized the rails' heavy- and long-distance hauling capabilities. As Iowa farmers prospered and increased production for commercial markets beyond the Midwest, the railroads, including the Rock Island, improved their main lines and built a network of spurs between smaller towns. The 1899 Council Bluffs depot is a relatively intact and well-preserved example of the new brick depots the Rock Island built during this prosperous period to replace its earlier frame depots.

Building Description

The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad passenger depot in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was built in 1899 from standard plans used by the railroad for medium-sized stations. Constructed as part of a corporate upgrade of depot facilities at the turn of the century, this depot shares not only its standard plan with other Rock Island depots, but also some of its building materials. Its design is somewhat Romanesque Revival, reflecting the lasting influence of Henry Hobson Richardson [1838-86]. However, the general Victorian affection for polychromatic architecture also is seen in the diversity of colored materials used in the depot. The plan consists of two single-story rectangular masses tied together by one massive hipped roof. Passenger waiting rooms and the office are contained within the larger rectangle; baggage storage and handling space was provided by the other. On the track side of the depot, a two-story bay tower separates the two waiting areas and afforded railroad employees an unobstructed view up and down the tracks. On the other side of the depot, a porte cochere, or covered porch, provided shelter for carriages arriving at the station. The depot's masonry walls are of dark red rough-faced brick on the battered lower half and pale yellow pressed brick on the upper portion. Door and window sills are cut stone, a pink granite. The same pink granite is still used as ballast for the tracks running alongside the depot. Molded terra-cotta trim is used in several places on the building and red tiles cover the enormous roof. The overhang of the roof is supported by large, regularly placed, wooden braces. Located at the southern tip of Main Street, the depot is separated from downtown Council Bluffs by some ten or 12 blocks and a manufacturing district. The depot sits on an angled northwest/southeast orientation, reflecting the angle of the trackage next to it. Surrounded by a grassy yard to the northwest and to the southeast, the depot today has an asphalt drive along its northeast side and the original brick paver platform on the southwest, track side. The railroad yard of multiple tracks which once ran alongside the depot has been reduced by the removal of several middle sets of tracks, however the two farthest sets and the nearest set still exist, One set of tracks is active, serving the Iowa Interstate Railroad. A single mature ash tree is found on the northwest grassy side yard, apparently in the same location as the memorial tree planted in 1922 for the Rock Island's 70^th anniversary ceremony. Nearby, two slight depressions in the ground remain and are thought to be the horseshoe-throwing pits that helped passengers while away the time as they waited for trains. Several of the gooseneck platform lights are also extant. The open breezeway of this standard-plan depot was filled by the railroad during the 1950s with harmonious but not matching red and yellow bricks. Also, portions of the roof tiling damaged by fire were replaced in the 1980s using tile recycled from a public building being demolished.

The walls of the depot sit on a stone foundation and are uniform in composition and construction. Dark red, rock-faced bricks, bonded with a thin red mortar, form the lower battered walls and yellow or light-buff smooth bricks, bonded with thin joints of yellow mortar, form the upper wall area. All bricks are laid in a stretcher-only pattern. These same brick types were used by the Rock Island in a number of its other depots from this time period and were likely shipped by the railroad from a central supplier to the various construction sites. The same bricks are found, singly or in combination, in Rock Island depots at: Ottawa, Illinois (1898/99); Wilton, Iowa (1898); Iowa City, Iowa (1898); Anita, Iowa (date unknown); and Atlantic, Iowa (1898). The Iowa City and Ottawa depots also are based on the same standard plan as the Council Bluffs depot.

Dressed stone sills at the windows and doors of the Council Bluffs depot are of a pinkish granite. This distinctive granite, flecked with black, white and clear quartz speckles, is a regionally abundant building stone and is still being quarried today. The likely quarry source for the depot stone and ballast rock is the Minnesota River valley, in the Ortonville, Minnesota, and Milbank, South Dakota, area. The Rock Island corporate builders combined native stone with the more uniform brick types in other depots as well, giving the company depots that both reflected the Rock Island "look" but also retained a local flavor. Another example is seen in the "Lake Superior sandstone" used in the Peoria, Illinois, depot. Alternatively, terra-cotta beltcourses are used to form the window sills in both the Atlantic and Iowa City, Iowa, depots while slabs of limestone or dolomite form the doorway sills.

Fenestration in the Council Bluffs depot consists of large, complex windows in the passenger waiting areas and simpler fixed and sliding sash windows elsewhere. In order to cast as much light as possible into the waiting areas, each large wall opening is filled by a single-light, double-hung window flanked by narrow vertical fixed lights. Above this arrangement are three fixed single lights. Sashes, meeting rails, frames and mullions are of painted wood. Ground-level windows in the trackside tower are single-pane double-hung sash windows topped by a single-light transom. Windows on the second level of the tower lack the high transom. Smaller four-light sash windows, arranged relatively high in the walls of the baggage room, appear at either side of the side doorways and on the end wall. Sills of all windows are granite while the lintels are formed by courses of yellow brick which protrude from the plane of the wall. Waiting room doors have four panels in the lower area and glazing above. Baggage room doors are solid wood with cross members for extra strength.

The massive hipped roof is covered everywhere with red tiles and is constructed of plank lumber over the portions supported by brick walls. Over the once-open breezeway, the roof is framed with heavy timbers, running lengthwise, with nails toenailed into the joints. Additional internal support for the breezeway roof is provided by a metal bracing system also running lengthwise. This metal support is located on the drive side and on the track side of the breezeway roof at the point where the roof would clear the vertical plane of the walls (had there originally been any) and projects as an overhang. The overhanging portion of the roof is supported by large wooden braces everywhere except the breezeway. Built-in wooden gutters at the roof's edge channel rain into downspouts and an underground collection point. The trackside tower's 12-sided roof is covered with the same tile, as is the port cochere on the other side.

The port cochere is supported by a rather elegant side wall. Composed of the same red and yellow brick, it is pierced by three very large openings with round-arch tops and flat granite sills.? The point of change from red brick to yellow--also the springing line of the arches--is marked by buff-colored terra cotta abutments which are grooved to resemble stone. Molded dentils appear just below the cornice of each abutment. The masonry arches themselves are formed by wedge-shaped bricks.

Generally, the exterior architectural appearance of the depot is one of corporate confidence and solidity. The brickwork lacks applied decoration and relies instead on changes in color and texture to enliven the design. The major alteration, the infilling of the breezeway by the railroad in 1954, is itself a historically significant alteration tied to the efforts of the Rock Island to cope with an evaporating customer base. Precipitously declining passenger numbers and the increased use of the nation's highway system to move freight and mail eventually led to the collapse of not only the Rock Island line, but several other large rail lines by the 1970s. Extant Rock Island depots often reflect the struggle of the line during its last twenty years.

For several decades in the mid-twentieth century the depot was shared with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway (c. 1939 to the late 1970s). Virtually no physical evidence remains of this shared space. Also, over the years the Rock's freight operations were transferred to this depot and the women's waiting room (on the southeast end) was converted to five offices. By the 1970s, the men's waiting room had been converted to freight space. Today, the interior has been returned to its earlier appearance and is devoted to a museum of railroad history. The original waiting rooms have display cases filled with railroad artifacts, photographs and memorabilia. The ticket office is interpreted as a period room with authentic artifacts. The breezeway exhibits a model railroad group's extensive collection and the baggage room has been converted to a meeting space with audio-visual capabilities. The interiors of these spaces are not historic in appearance.

When the depot was constructed in 1899, the two waiting rooms were included to provide separate quarters for the women and men Passengers. No passageway existed between the two rooms. The existing doorway was cut through the central masonry wall in 1954 and the doorway into the men's restroom was relocated to its present location in the passageway. The central office has ticket windows opening into both waiting rooms. The interior of the depot was described at the time of its construction by the local newspaper:

Loose tiles, each marked "TIFFANY" and "CHICAGO" and matching those found on the "white enamel" restroom walls, were located in the attic of the depot.

The upper plaster wails of the waiting rooms are painted today, but a remnant of the original wallpaper has been preserved for display on the wall of the men's waiting room. Lower-walls are covered with a brownish glazed tile or brick. Floors are covered with six-sided terrazzo tiles and have a Greek key border. Woodwork is quarter-sawn oak and door and window surrounds are topped with oak dentils, bead-and-reel molding and a prominent cornice. Door surrounds terminate in pink-marble plinth blocks at the floor.

Below grade, only the southeast half of the baggage room had a basement, now filled. A narrow utility "tunnel," housing plumbing and wires, ran from this basement to about the office area between the waiting rooms. Above the ground floor, the hipped roof creates a huge attic space and from a catwalk down the center of the attic one can access the second floor of the trackside tower. This small second-floor room has a plank floor but is otherwise unfinished. According to local historical society and museum personnel, this was to be the superintendent's office but was left unfinished because Council Bluffs was not the division point. Since there is no staircase providing easy access to this office it is apparent this space simply is part of the "standard plan" which did not apply to the Council Bluffs station needs.

Floor plan

Southwest side (1994)

Northwest end and southwest side (1994)

Southeast end and northeast side (1994)

Southeast end (1994)

Interior northwest waiting room looking to central office (1994)

Interior doorway and ticket window (1994)

Interior southeast waiting room (1994)

Historic view (1932)

Historic view (date unknown)