Texas and Pacific Depot

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. The Texas and Pacific Railroad came rolling eastward into Bonham in 1873, and when a railroad comes to town, the first thing a town needs is a place to meet it. So that same year, they threw up a small wooden depot, nothing fancy, just enough to get the job done.

But Bonham had plans, and wood only gets you so far. By 1900, that modest little structure gave way to something with a good deal more ambition, a larger brick building, the kind that says we're not going anywhere. And for nearly two decades, that brick depot stood proud, doing its job, until 1918 when fire got into it and did some serious damage.

Now, some buildings don't come back from a thing like that. This one did. The depot was rebuilt the very following year, and it kept right on serving customers all the way through 1950.

That's a long run for any building with fire in its past. Here's what makes the structure worth a second look, though. The style is Romanesque Revival, rooted in the architectural thinking of the 19th century.

But if you study the details, those knee-brace eave brackets up under the roofline, those are 20th-century touches, newer ideas worked into an older vision. One building carrying two centuries in its bones. That's not nothing.

That's Bonham.

What the marker says

The Texas and Pacific Railroad was built eastward to Bonham in 1873. A small wooden depot erected that year was replaced by this larger brick structure in 1900. Damaged by fire in 1918, the depot was rebuilt the following year and continued to serve customers until 1950. The structure's Romanesque Revival style reflects 19th-century architectural trends, while elements such as the knee-brace eave brackets reveal 20th-century influences. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1990