Trinity and Brazos Valley Railroad Depot and Office Building

The Trinity and Brazos Valley Railroad Depot and Office Building have been since its construction one of the most notable buildings in Teague. The structure, strongly influenced by Spanish/Renaissance revival architecture, was one of the first brick buildings in Teague, and the company which built it has had a profound influence on the life and development of the city. The Teague depot was the main passenger stop between Waxahachie and Houston on the Valley Road (as the T&BV came to be called), and Teague was the principal one of sixteen townsites that were promoted and developed for settlement as a direct result of the coming of the Valley Road.

This building housed the main offices for the T&BV Railroad, which had come through Teague, then named Brewer, in 1906. Its design and durability indicate the confidence with which the new company began its operations and the importance that the railroad company once placed on its passenger business. The town was incorporated as the City of Teague in 1907, months after the completion of the depot. The name "Teague" was a family name of Benjamin F. Yoakum, an official of the T&BV and a native Texan with familial ties in Freestone County. Yoakum, two other Texas investors, and Col. Edward M. House, advisor to Woodrow Wilson, had founded the T&BV in 1902. At its completion, the road formed a new connection from Ft. Worth through Dallas to Houston and Galveston. Teague was the division point where the branch line from Cleburne and Mexia joined the main north-south line from Ft. Worth.

The Valley Road has been a main artery connecting north and central Texas cotton producers and grain storage areas with the Gulf, a function which once gave rise to the nickname "Boll Weevil Railway." The building of this railway partially coincides with the building of the Panama Canal, which was begun in 1907 after years of planning and completed in 1914, stimulating commercial interests in Texas and the South with prime access to new world markets. The Valley Road, later owned by the Ft. Worth and Denver, and the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railways, has been during most of its existence a part of the national system of the Burlington and Rock Island lines. The T&BV introduced diesel passenger streamliners to Texas, and the company has always been the principal employer in Teague.
The Teague depot served passengers for 59 years, from 1907 until 1966 when passenger service was discontinued. Two years later, in 1968, the railroad offices were moved. In 1969 the depot was sold to the City of Teague and in 1970 became the Burlington and Rock Island Railroad Museum.

Texas railroading is the main theme of the museum, which includes in its exhibits a railroad engine and several rooms of historical items and memorabilia connected with the railroad. The entire files of the T&BV Railroad Company are housed here. Exhibits have now been extended to include other items of historical and general interest including a log cabin, a Cottrell newspaper printing press, motor cars, and displays concerning Early Texas and local history. Some former office rooms upstairs are now used as meet- ing halls, exhibition areas, and offices by local groups such as armed services veterans, the Boy Scouts of America, and the City Art League.
After some uncertain times at the end of the railroad years, the Teague depot has been renewed as a place of importance and a source of local pride.