Illinois Central Railroad Freight Depot (Bloomington, Indiana)
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The Bloomington freight station is a historic
train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing s ...
in downtown Bloomington,
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
, United States. Constructed in the early twentieth century, it has endured closure and a series of modifications to survive to the present day, and it has been declared a
historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...
. Used only occasionally for many years, it is one of the most important buildings in a large historic district on the city's west side.


History

By the 1890s, the
Monon Railroad The Monon Railroad , also known as the Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville Railway from 1897 to 1971, was an American railroad that operated almost entirely within the state of Indiana. The Monon was merged into the Louisville and Nashville Ra ...
was serving Bloomington and operating maintenance shops on the city's southern side. In 1902, desiring service from a second railroad, Bloomington and
Perry Perry, also known as pear cider, is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally the perry pear. It has been common for centuries in England, particularly in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. It is also mad ...
Townships offered a large cash bonus to whichever company would add a second rail line in the city. Four years later,
Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also c ...
took up the offer, and upon finishing its route into the city, it decided to erect a station dedicated to freight traffic. ''Note:'' This includes and Accompanying photographs. Designed by the railroad's staff architects, it is a simple building without unneeded elements; its architecture was determined by the features that the railroad needed to operate a train station. From its earliest years, the depot played an important part in the development of Bloomington's heavy industries: many
limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
mills and the large Showers Brothers furniture factory were located in its immediate vicinity. At the time of construction, the depot was a simple rectangle, long and wide. It was greatly expanded in 1922 by the addition of a second
story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (British ...
to much of the building. The northernmost portion of the building was removed in 1959, because falling freight traffic no longer required such a large building. After closing in 1963, the depot became a
bar and grill Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar ...
restaurant; the restaurant later closed, leaving the building vacant, although another restaurant, Macri's at the Depot, opened inside by 2012. The building is currently used as office space by a private company. https://cfcproperties.com/commercial/bloomington/the-depot/ Commercial Building - The Depot], Commercial Building - The Depot,2020. Accessed 2020-06-12.


Architecture

The depot is a rectangular wooden building that rests on a foundation (engineering), foundation of concrete. Because the building's primary purpose was the transfer of goods between wagons and railroad cars, the ground floor is elevated above the street by about . When the depot was constructed, it measured from east to west, and from north to south, although the 1959 modification reduced the building to only long. Its exterior displays simple clapboarding, and the building is covered with a shallow-pitched
gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
roof of asphalt shingles. On both the street side and the rail side of the building (east and west respectively), the roof extends approximately past the edge of the building, in order to shelter the loading and unloading zones. This portion of the roof is one of the more distinctive sections of the depot from an architectural point of view: the
rafter A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members such as wooden beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof shingles, roof deck and its associated ...
s and braces were left uncovered at the overhangs. Large doors provide access to the large freight-handling rooms of the interior, which are lit by a combination of windows and skylights. The southern end of the station includes office space and a waiting room for businessmen. The roofline was altered by the expansion: a
hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
was created over the new second story, but the original first-story overhang for the loading zones was preserved. As a freight depot rather than a passenger station, the depot was built exclusively with efficiency in mind. No unnecessary decorations can be found on the structure, and it was built according to a generic design by the railroad's staff architects rather than being a unique production by local craftsmen or architects. Consequently, the station lacks a distinctive
architectural style An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...
. Aside from the expansion in 1922 and the reduction in 1959, no substantial modifications have been made to the original design.


Preservation

In 1983, the building was listed 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 ...
as the "Illinois Central Railroad Freight Depot", qualifying because of its place in local history. Its significance depended on the role it played for the city's furniture and limestone industries. Much of Bloomington's near west side was designated a historic district and listed on the National Register in 1997. Known as the
Bloomington West Side Historic District Bloomington West Side Historic District is a national historic district located at Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana. The district encompasses 394 contributing buildings, 2 contributing sites, and 2 contributing structures in a mixed resid ...
, it encompasses approximately four hundred
historic buildings This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many ...
,Brubaker, Cynthia, and Nancy Hiestand. ''National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Bloomington West Side Historic District''.
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...
, 1996-02-09.
including the Illinois Central Depot. The depot was deemed one of the leading components of the district, due largely to its place as the sole railroad-related building within the district: the Illinois Central built multiple train stations, engine houses, and
turntables A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
near the district's eastern edge, but only the freight depot remained by 1987.


References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Indiana Buildings and structures in Bloomington, Indiana Former railway stations in Indiana Railway buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana Former Illinois Central Railroad stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1906 Railway stations closed in 1959 Railway freight houses on the National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Indiana Transportation buildings and structures in Monroe County, Indiana