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
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 v ...
in 1970. The building now houses the Little Traverse Historical Museum.
History
The
Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad
The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad at its height provided passenger and freight railroad services between Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan, USA. The company was formed on January 18, 1854.
Beginnings
After grappl ...
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 The Chicago and West Michigan Railway (C&WM) is a defunct railroad which operated in the state of Michigan between 1881 and 1899.Elk Rapids 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 C ...
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 Railway operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections in ...
. 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
The ''Resort Special'' was a seasonal night train from Chicago, renowned for serving resort towns such as Traverse City, Charlevoix, Petoskey on the northwestern part of Michigan’s lower peninsula. Begun by the Pere Marquette Railway, it was ...
'' 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
Porte may refer to:
*Sublime Porte, the central government of the Ottoman empire
*Porte, Piedmont, a municipality in the Piedmont region of Italy
*John Cyril Porte, British/Irish aviator
*Richie Porte, Australian professional cyclist who competes ...
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.