Post Santa Fe Depot

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, most towns out here on the South Plains just kind of happened, grew up around a crossroads or a water source, nothing fancy about it. But Post City, Garza County, that one was a little different.

A cereal manufacturer named Charles William Post founded the place in 1907, and from the very start, he had ambitions for it. Big ones. The kind that require convincing a railroad to come to you.

And that is exactly what he did. Post worked on the Santa Fe Railroad until they agreed to lay tracks, and those tracks came down in 1910. The following year, the company built the Post Santa Fe Depot, and they did not do it on the cheap.

They brought in a noted architect by the name of Louis Curtiss to design it, and Curtiss built the thing out of reinforced concrete and terra cotta tiles. This was not a rough-hewn cattle-country way station. This was a statement.

Now, between 1909 and 1911, Curtiss was busy across this part of Texas, designing depots in Lubbock, Snyder, and Sweetwater, all of them cut from the same cloth as the one right here in Post. A whole family of buildings, spread out across the plains. Here is the part that makes you stop and appreciate what you are looking at, though.

Most of those Curtiss designs are gone now. The Post Santa Fe Depot is one of the very few that still exist anywhere in the United States. Charles William Post wanted his town to mean something, and Louis Curtiss gave it a building that proved it did.

That depot is still standing, still making the case.

What the marker says

After founding Post City in 1907, cereal manufacturer Charles William Post attracted railroads to the town, eventually convincing the Santa Fe Railroad to lay tracks on 1910. The following year, the company built the Post Santa Fe Depot. Designed by noted architect Louis Curtiss, the depot was constructed with reinforced concrete and terra cotta tiles. Between 1909 and 1911, Curtiss designed several depots in Texas, including examples in Lubbock, Snyder and Sweetwater that matched the Post depot. One of the few Curtiss designs that still exist in the United States, the Post Santa Fe Depot represents Post’s early economic development and technological progress. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2018