Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Train Station WI

Lake Geneva Depot, Lake Geneva Wisconsin

Date added: February 02, 2024 Categories:

The Lake Geneva Depot was Lake Geneva's key transportation terminal during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the resort town earned the appellation, "Saratoga of the West ." During this period, the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad provided exclusive service between Chicago and Lake Geneva, conveying wealthy Chicagoans to and from their fashionable summer homes. The depot was the work of the regionally notable architect, Charles Sumner Frost, who designed several stations in Wisconsin.

After a ten-year lapse, rail service between Chicago and Lake Geneva was restored in 1871 with the construction of a spur line of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. In the decades that followed, Lake Geneva attracted the wealthy Chicagoans who transformed the rural Wisconsin town into a posh resort. People like John J. Mitchell, Charles H. Wacker, and the Wrigleys purchased estates on the lake and built houses that echoed the designs of structures in Newport, Rhode Island, a celebrated retreat of affluent easterners. The picturesqueness of these opulent summer homes is reflected in their names: Hillcroft, Wychwood, Ceylon Court, and Fair Lawn.

In 1891 the railroad built a new depot at Lake Geneva. Frost designed it in keeping with the social climate of the town, and the terminal became one of the focuses of the community. Eva Seymour Lundahl recalls the depot in its heyday:

"We often went down to the station to see the 5:18 ["Millionaires' Special" ] come in from Chicago. It was really a grand event in our lives to see all the wealthy men and women in their grand attire . .. the families of C. K. G. Billings, John J. Mitchell, and J. H. Moore."

The depot was demolished on August 22^nd, 1986.

Charles Sumner Frost was born in Maine in 1856; he studied architecture at MIT and then worked for a number of Boston firms, notably Peabody and Stearns. After moving to Chicago, Frost worked in partnership with Henry Ives Cobb between 1882 and 1889. He then practiced alone until 1898 when he formed a partnership with Alfred A. Granger. In 1885 Frost married Mary Hughitt, the daughter of an important midwestern railroad magnate. This connection placed Frost in an excellent position to receive depot commissions and led him to undertake special studies for the design of railroad buildings.

Among the many railroad designs executed by Frost and his partners were the Chicago and Northwestern Company offices, the LaSalle Street Station and the Northwestern Terminal in Chicago, Union Stations in Omaha and St. Paul, and the Chicago and Northwestern Depot in Milwaukee. Smaller stations in Wisconsin designed by Frost and still in existence include depots at South Milwaukee, Oconomowoc, Wausau, Ashland, Fond du Lac, Superior, and Eau Claire. Regarding small-depot design, Frost wrote:

The design for small stations is very similar; each requires two waiting rooms, one ticket office, and a baggage-room, but so simple a problem, if considered rightly, has many points important both to the company and the traveling public. . .. Architecturally, the building should express its purpose and when possible, also give some hint as to the character of the town or city it serves. Above all things, as it is intended for a waiting place, the shelter feature must be strongly developed. The wall and piers should be massive, even out of proportion to the load they carry, in order not to be damaged by the vibration and jar caused by passing trains. The roof is, after all, the chief feature, and on its handling and material depend much of the failure or success of the design. . .

In his handling of the Lake Geneva Depot as well as in his other Wisconsin depots, Frost incorporated his design philosophy and the philosophy of Late Victorian picturesque design: as is usual in depot design the ticket office is centralized and marked on the exterior by a tower and/or a bay; most Frost depots contain a central waiting room section with baggage rooms separated from it by an arched porch area; long roofs supported by brackets dominate Frost's depots, along with platforms similarly sheltered by long roofs that extend the horizontal line of the buildings. Although Frost's depots often resemble one another in plan, each was built of materials and designed in a style suitable for the particular community it was to serve. For Lake Geneva, Frost designed a low single-story Queen Anne style building, executed in red brick; the picturesqueness of the broad overhanging shingle roof with its conical sections and its tower suited well the upper-class resort community.

Building Description

The Lake Geneva Depot is a one-story brick depot with a five-part symmetrical plan. The parts are unified by a strong horizontal line created by elevated basements and by a low, spreading roof with wide sheltering eaves supported by large metal brackets. The central section is a large, hipped roofed pavilion that served as the waiting area and which is dominated by a round center-front tower with a conical roof. The tower features a round-arched stained glass window. Brick quoins decorate the corners and fenestration of the main section. At the two front corners of the main block are rounded bays capped by low, wide conical roofs. The interior of the waiting area retains its original wood paneling. On either side of the central mass, gable-roofed breezeways connect it to two hipped roofed dependencies used as freight storage rooms. The depot is currently being used as a warehouse and is in deteriorating condition.