Weimar Railroad Depot

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Weimar Railroad Depot. Now, every good Texas town story starts with a man who had a plan and a railroad at his back. In 1873, T.

W. Peirce, president of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad, decided he was going to build a depot on property belonging to a man named D. W.

Jackson. Jackson had been born in 1829 and he'd live all the way to 1904, so he had plenty of time to appreciate what came next. Because what came next was a town.

Peirce and Jackson worked out an arrangement, and it was a tidy one: the two of them split the profits from selling town lots. Before any of that could happen, though, this part of the country had a real problem on its hands. Transportation.

Getting goods and people in and out of the area had posed a major problem, and that was just the plain truth of it. Then the railroad came, and things changed. Peirce named the new town Weimar, after a German town he admired.

Whether he'd visited it, dreamed about it, or just liked the sound of it, the marker doesn't say. What it does say is that Weimar wasted no time. It quickly became a leading trade center.

The first depot served its purpose, did its years of work, and then in 1925 it was replaced by a new structure, the one standing there today. Now here's the turn that gives this story its particular Texas flavor. In 1972, the Southern Pacific Railroad donated that building, not for trains anymore, but for books.

It became the Weimar Public Library. A depot built to move people through a place, ended up being the reason people stay and sit down.

What the marker says

Weimar was founded in 1873 when T. W. Peirce, president of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad, built a depot here on property of D. W. Jackson (1829-1904). Peirce and Jackson shared the profits from sale of town lots. Before the coming of the railroad, transportation had posed a major problem for this area. Named for a German town that Peirce admired, Weimar quickly became a leading trade center. The first depot was replaced in 1925 by the present structure. In 1972 the Southern Pacific Railroad donated the building for use as the Weimar Public Library.