Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern Railway Depot

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern Railway Depot. Now settle in, because this is a story about a place that saw more comings and goings than most towns ever dream of. The tracks of the Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern Railway reached the town of Mineral Wells in 1891.

Trains rolling in, promises rolling with them. But the depot you can see today wasn't the first one to stand on this ground. No, the original burned.

And so, around 1903, they built a replacement, and they did not build it plain. They built it in the Romanesque revival style, with semi-circular arches and curvilinear brackets that announce themselves to anyone paying attention. This was a building meant to be seen.

And it was seen, all right. For the next twenty-five years, it primarily served the hundreds of thousands of travelers who came to Mineral Wells to take advantage of the mineral baths and spas. Hundreds of thousands.

Let that settle for a moment. People arriving by the trainload, hoping the waters would do what nothing else had. Then came World War II, and the depot changed its purpose without changing its bones.

The railroad and depot served in the transportation of soldiers to and from nearby Camp Wolters. The same arches that had welcomed weary travelers now watched over men heading into something far less restful. That depot has held a lot of history under those curvilinear brackets, and it's still standing there in Palo Pinto County, carrying the weight of every one of those stories.

What the marker says

The tracks of the Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern Railway reached the town of Mineral Wells in 1891. This depot was built about 1903 to replace an earlier one that had burned. For the next 25 years it primarily served the hundreds of thousands of travelers who visited the town to take advantage of the mineral baths and spas. During World II, the railroad and depot served in the transportation of soldiers to and from nearby Camp Wolters. Outstanding features of the Romanesque revival style depot include its semi-circular arches and curvilinear brackets. (1985)