Santa Fe Passenger Depot

The Santa Fe Depot in Gainesville was constructed in 1902 in response to the increased demand for rail services in this city of north-central Texas. One of the few unaltered turn-of-the-century commercial buildings in the city, the Depot is indicative of Gainesville's importance to the commerce of this section of the state. In the early years of the 20th century, Gainesville was an important shipping point of the Santa Fe line connecting the American Midwest with the Gulf of Mexico. The Depot saw a great period of activity during those years, when as many as 35,000 heads of livestock were shipped and a dozen passenger trains stopped daily, with hundreds of passengers being fed at Fred Harvey's noted restaurant in the Depot.

Gainesville is noted for its outstanding collection of turn-of-the-century architecture, and the Santa Fe Depot is one of the least altered commercial buildings surviving from this period. The scale and quality of workmanship of the Depot reflect the importance of the railroad to the city. By the time the railroad was constructed, Gainesville's commercial district could boast a variety of styles in a number of new three-and four-story buildings. Unfortunately, many of the Depot's contemporaries have been either demolished or seriously altered, thus increasing the importance of the surviving Gainesville structure.

The Gainesville Santa Fe Passenger Depot is evidence of this community's significance as a transportation center in the early economic development of the state. For many years Gainesville, the county seat of Cooke County, was the frontier between AngloAmerican settlement to the south and east, and the wilderness of the Indian Territory to the north and west. It was an outfitting point for pioneers traveling the Southern California Trail (1850s), and it was a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail, the first transcontinental communication network (1858-1862). Following the Civil War, Gainesville was located squarely between two cattle trails joining south Texas with the Kansas railheads. It is because of its important role as a railroad city, however, that Gainesville achieved its significance as the financial and transportation center of the several north-central Texas counties that border the Red River. From 1877 until 1886, Gainesville served as the western terminus of the first interstate rail line that was built into the state--the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway. This rail connection made possible the direct shipment of cattle from Texas, to the East, thereby avoiding the long and sometimes catastrophic trail drives to Kansas that were the rule in the 1870s. In 1883, when a record 2.8 million head of cattle were shipped north and east, Gainesville and Fort Worth were the principal livestock shipping points in the state. In 1887, Gainesville financier and county judge J.M. Lindsay sold two pieces of property to the Gulf, Colorado, and Sant Fe Railway, which was building north to Purcell, Indian Territory (Oklahoma) to make an important north-south connection with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, a Kansas-based line. On one of these pieces of the property was constructed a small frame rail depot. The other property, consisting of six parcels of land located three-quarters of a mile to the northeast, was used to accommodate a roundhouse and repair shops for the Santa Fe line. Once this rail line was completed, Gainesville attained even greater significance as a rail center, since the American Midwest was then connected with a major Gulf port, the city of Galveston.

The heyday of the railroad in Gainesville came in the first three decades of the 20th century. In 1901, plans were drawn by C.W. Felt, Chief Engineer of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe, for a new, much finer depot in Gainesville. This second and extant) depot replaced the small frame structure of the early years; it had a landscaped park on its west side. During these busy years, as many as 35,000 heads of cattle were shipped daily on the Santa Fe line, a dozen passenger trains stopped daily, and hundreds of people (both travelers and local residents) were fed royally in Fred Harvey's depot restaurant. This restaurant, which operated until 1931, was one of seventy such eating establishments of Santa Fe--all famous for finely prepared food, exquisite appointments, and pretty waitresses. During the Second World War, Gainesville experienced unprecedented passenger rail travel as thousands of soldiers and their families were stationed at nearby Camp Howze, an infantry-training facility. In 1944, Gainesville ranked eighth in passenger-ticket sales of all Santa Fe cities, even ahead of Denver, Fort Worth, and Houston.

Rail use declined drastically in the late 1940s when automobile transportation became increasingly popular. By the late 1960s only two passenger trains passed daily through Gainesville on the "Lone Star" route from Chicago to Houston. By 1979, however, even this final Amtrak route was discontinued, and the depot, sadly underutilized since the closing of the Harvey House in 1931, was abandoned. For the following two years, negotiations proceeded among the City of Gainesville, the Santa Fe Railway, and the United States Department of Transportation to determine the future of the structure. It was finally deeded to the City of Gainesville by the Santa Fe Railway in a public ceremony on October 19, 1981.