The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Station is a railway depot located in Pioneer Park on West Lake Street in

Petoskey, Michigan Petoskey ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat and largest city in Emmet County. Part of Northern Michigan, Petoskey is a popular Midwestern resort town, as it sits on the shore of Little Traverse Bay, a bay of La ...

. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The building now houses the Little Traverse Historical Museum.

History

The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad began service to Petoskey in 1874, and was the only railroad in the area. In 1891, a second railroad, the Chicago and West Michigan Railway, began constructing a line with attendant buildings, between

Elk Rapids Elk Rapids is a village in Antrim County in the state of Michigan. The population was 1,642 at the 2010 census. The village is located within Elk Rapids Township, about north of Traverse City. It is physically split by the Elk River, which ...

and Petoskey. The railway purchased this land on the shore of

Little Traverse Bay Little Traverse Bay is a small bay, 170 feet (55 m) deep, off Lake Michigan in the northern area of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The cities of Harbor Springs and Petoskey are located on this bay. Harbor Springs originated as ''L'arbre de ...

to place their Petoskey Depot. The company hired the

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

firm of Mosser and Wilson to construct the depot, and both the rail line and depot were completed in 1892. The town of Petoskey then created a park (now Pioneer Park) surrounding the depot. In 1899, the Chicago and West Michigan Railway and this station was absorbed into the Pere Marquette Railway. The Pere Marquette (PM), in turn, was merged into the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...

(C&O) in 1947. The PM, and later, the C&O, ran the '' Resort Special'' night train from Chicago, along with local trains on the route. The Petoskey station continued to serve passengers until the 1950s, when it was abandoned. The C&O ran passenger trains to Petoskey until some point between 1961 and 1963. In 1970, the Little Traverse Regional Historical Society obtained a lease on the depot and some of the surrounding land. The building was converted into a museum in 1971, and as of 2017 is used as the Little Traverse Historical Museum

Description

The Chesapeake and Ohio Depot is located just on the edge of Little Traverse Bay. It is a distinctly Victorian Shingle style building with a distinct Victorian cast. The long building originally had open platforms at each end, but these were filled in during subsequent renovations. A porte cochere extends in the front of the building, and perching atop the building is a squat conical roof. Next to the conical section is a tall narrow chimney.

References

External links

Little Traverse Historical Museum
File:Pere Marquette Station, Petoskey, Michigan-LCCN2008679582.jpg, Depot, 1900 File:2009-0619-Petoskey-depotmuseum.JPG, Depot, 2009 {{National Register of Historic Places Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Railway stations in the United States opened in 1892 Former railway stations in Michigan Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Michigan Former Chesapeake and Ohio Railway stations National Register of Historic Places in Emmet County, Michigan Museums in Emmet County, Michigan Petoskey