Longview Train Depot

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Longview Train Depot. Now settle in, because this one starts with a land deal and ends with a building that outlasted everything around it. In 1870, a man named O.H.

Methvin deeded one hundred and fifty acres to Southern Pacific Railroad. One hundred and fifty acres. Just handed over the land, and with it, he set something in motion.

The very next year, 1871, Longview became the westward terminus of that railroad. End of the line. The place where the rails stopped and the frontier began.

Then in 1872, construction started on a railroad line running between Longview and Palestine, built by International Railroad, a company that would later go by the name International and Great Northern Railroad. That line reached an area known as the junction, just east of Longview. Now here's where things get interesting.

Texas and Pacific Railway, the T and P, acquired Southern Pacific Railroad and then turned around and began construction on a passenger depot in 1939, right there at the junction. That depot was completed in 1940, and it replaced an earlier station that had been built back in 1874. So Longview had already been doing this a long time.

The new depot was designed in the Colonial Revival style. Stylized quoins, a brick cornice, grey stone trim highlighting the coping, the keystones, the lintels. It went by two names, the T and P depot and the MO-PAC depot, and it stood one and a half stories tall.

Inside, it held a ticket office, waiting rooms, restrooms, a telegraph office, a yard office, a baggage and express office, and a mail room. Outside, two porches served travelers waiting on baggage and freight. And to reach the concrete platform where passengers waited for the train, you didn't walk around.

You walked through a tunnel that connected the depot straight to the platform. Now, the original dormers were removed sometime after construction, but they were later restored, which tells you something about how seriously folks took this building. At one time, Longview boasted three depots.

Three. A town founded by the railroad, proud of every rail it could claim. But time has a way of thinning things out.

Today, the 1940 Longview Train Depot is the only one left standing. All that ambition, all those lines and junctions and terminus points, and in the end, this is the one that endured.

What the marker says

With railroad expansion headed west, O.H. Methvin deeded 150 acres to Southern Pacific Railroad in 1870. In 1871, Longview became the westward terminus of the railroad. Construction of a railroad line between Longview and Palestine began in 1872 by International Railroad (later called International & Great Northern Railroad). This line reached an area known as the junction just east of Longview. Texas and Pacific (T&P) railway company acquired Southern Pacific Railroad and began construction on a passenger depot in 1939 located in the junction. The 1940 completed depot replaced an earlier station that was built in 1874. To access the concrete platform where travelers waited for the train, passengers utilized a tunnel that connected the depot to the platform. Designed in the Colonial Revival Style, the train depot, also called the T&P/MO-PAC depot, includes stylized quoins, a brick cornice and grey stone trim used to highlight the coping, keystones and lintels. The one-and-a-half story building contained a ticket office, waiting rooms, restrooms, telegraph office, yard office, baggage/express office and mail room. The original dormers were removed sometime after construction but were later restored. Two porches were part of the original structure for a waiting area, baggage and freight. As a town founded by the railroad, Longview has always been connected to railways and, at one time, boasted three depots. Now, the 1940 Longview Train Depot is the only remaining depot in Longview.