Barnesville station is a historic train station in

Barnesville, Ohio Barnesville is a village in Belmont County, Ohio, United States. It is located in the central portion of Warren Township in Belmont County and is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,193 at the ...

. It is located at 300 East Church Street, between Mulberry and Railroad Streets. The building was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on August 8, 1985, as the Barnesville Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Depot.

History

Founding to Rails: 1808-1960

The village of Barnesville was platted in 1808 by James Barnes, who took advantage of a

Drovers' road A drovers' road, drove ''roador droveway is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to market or between summer and winter pasture (see transhumance). Many drovers' roads were ancient routes of unknown age; ot ...

that ran through the area from the Ohio River. This road, as well as

National Road The National Road (also known as the Cumberland Road) was the first major improved highway in the United States built by the federal government. Built between 1811 and 1837, the road connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and was a main tran ...

, led to Barnesville being populated quickly. A railroad line was laid out through Barnesville in the middle 1850s and a wooden freight house was built close to the current location of the depot. Passenger service for the town was located in a corner room of the freight house until 1914, when the town was granted a depot by the

B&O Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

. The depot was opened in 1916 and was heralded by the local newspaper as "long needed and greatly desired." The depot was the site of many city events, including troop send-offs during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, as well as several

Farmers' market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or o ...

s held on the site.

Decline: 1960-1984

The area surrounding the depot once consisted of manufacturers and warehouses like the Watt Car and Wheel Company and The Barnesville Glass Company, but has changed to mostly residential. The wooden freight house was demolished in 1962, leaving the depot as the only substantial building on the site. Besides the railroad tunnel west of the site, the depot is the only building in Barnesville relating to the important era of rail in the town. The last passenger departed the depot in 1961. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway took over the B&O Railroad and operated the depot as offices and freight depot until 1983, when they vacated the "eastern division."

Redevelopment: 1984-present

The building sat vacant and was primarily opened for the

Barnesville Pumpkin Festival The Barnesville Pumpkin Festival is an annual festival in Barnesville, Ohio, dedicated to the growing and harvesting of pumpkins and other fall harvests. The festival, which has been held since 1964, is conducted by a locally appointed committee an ...

for exhibits on the early years of Barnesville and the history of the railroad and its impact on the town. The Barnesville Area Chamber of Commerce occupied the depot as offices from late 1990s until 2006, when they moved to a site in downtown Barnesville. The depot has been the center of activity as the Governor's Rails to Trails program will place a path along the old railway route from the depot to the east end of the town limits and may lead to an extension of the trail to the western limits as well. A pavilion was built beside the depot on the foundations of the old freight house and is the site of the Barnesville Farmers Market as well as events during the Barnesville Pumpkin Festival

Appearance

The depot is built in a Federal style with Spanish Mission elements. The building is a rectangular one-story structure built with buff red bricks in

flemish bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...

with a stone

watertable The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

. The depot is surrounded by a brick road leading uphill to Church Street (the depot sits in a depression 30 feet lower than the city). Flat arched windows are double-sashed and contain either 6/6 or 4/4 panels and are set back from the exterior wall. A central door surrounded by a fanlight and side panels rest in the middle of the building. To either side of the door is a window and an unadorned pilaster. A double panel window lights either side of the building. The last 8 feet of the building then sets back from the footprint. The roof protrudes about 5 feet from the wall and is supported by solid molded brackets. The roof is tiled in a reddish colored clay. The roof is protruded by a Mission-style dormer, the window is surrounded by a pillar topped by a stone ball. The dormer rises in a step/curved pattern to an arch. The stylized window lights the waiting room below. The design of the depot reflects many others built by the B&O Railroad during the early 1900s.

References