Hitchcock Depot

Duane's take

Now, I'm gonna tell this the way the official marker tells it, so you know where the story comes from. Pull up a chair, because this one starts with a widow, a railroad, and a deal that put a town on the map. According to local oral tradition, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad needed something real bad in 1875: a right-of-way through Emily Hitchcock's property.

Now, Emily held the land, and the railroad held the ambition, and somewhere in the negotiating, those two things found a compromise. The railroad agreed to establish a depot named for her deceased husband, Lent Munson Hitchcock. That's the tradition, anyway.

A name for a passage. The railroad got through, and Lent Munson Hitchcock got remembered. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe went on to plat the town of Hitchcock in 1891, and the depot itself was built by 1893.

And once that depot was standing, it became something more than a stop on a line. It became a social center. Passengers came through.

Freight came through. Agricultural produce moved past its doors. Out here on the Texas coastal plain, that depot was the pulse of the place, the spot where the wider world and this little town met each other face to face.

Now, time has a way of takin' things. Depots close, lines change, buildings disappear. But this structure, the last of the area's Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe depots still standing, got a second life.

The Santa Fe Area Historical Foundation relocated it in 1975, and by 1982 it had been converted for museum use. The last one standing, saved and put to work telling the story. Not a bad ending for a building that started as part of a bargain.

What the marker says

According to local oral tradition, the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad (GCSF) gained a vital right-of-way through Emily Hitchcock's property in 1875 by agreeing to establish a depot named for her deceased husband, Lent Munson Hitchcock. GCSF platted the town of Hitchcock in 1891. The depot, built by 1893, became a social center as passengers, freight, and agricultural produce moved past its doors. This structure, the last of this area's GCSF depots still standing, was relocated here by the Santa Fe Area Historical Foundation in 1975 and converted for museum use in 1982.