The Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railway Office and Freight House, simply known as the Paducah Freight House, is a historic railroad

freight Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including transp ...

depot located in the southern portion of downtown

Paducah, Kentucky Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Missour ...

. In 1852 the first charter to build a railroad for Paducah was established.

Lloyd Tilghman Lloyd Tilghman (January 26, 1816 – May 16, 1863) was a Confederate general in the American Civil War. A railroad construction engineer by background, he was selected by the Confederate government to build two forts to defend the Tennessee ...

, representative of the New Orleans & Ohio Railroad, established the first seven miles of track for Paducah, connecting the town to Florence Station, Kentucky. The

freight house A freight house is a building owned and operated by a railroad for receiving, loading, unloading, and temporary storage of less-than-car load (LCL) freight. Having a protected area for temporary freight storage improves efficiency by allowing ...

was constructed in 1925 by the

Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway was a railway company that operated in the U.S. states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. It began as the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, chartered in Nashville on December 11, 1845, ...

in hopes of future connections with other railroads, such as the

Big Four Railroad The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, also known as the Big Four Railroad and commonly abbreviated CCC&StL, was a railroad company in the Midwestern United States. It operated in affiliation with the New York Central system. I ...

. As such, it was built larger than it needed to be, as those connections were never built.Smith Sec.8, pp.1,2 The station was usually used to transport

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

s and

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

s that required refrigeration from trains to the private transportation of produce dealers. The Railway was absorbed into the

Louisville & Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of the ...

in 1957. In 1974 the L&N reduced their presence in Paducah and moved their workers to a different depot at 6th and Norton in Paducah. The Johnston-Backus Brokerage Company purchased the building in November 1976. In 1993 Johnston and Backus retired, selling it to Charles and Carolyn Simpson, who made it an

antique An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...

mall.History of the Paducah Freight House
Paducah Chapter National Railway Historical Society The Freight House is a two-story brick structure with a

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 ...

foundation. It has a Tudor look with its Palladian-type windows and parapeted dormers and end walls. Its different colored bricks detail the openings of the building.Smith Sec.7, p.1 The Paducah Railroad Museum is next door. It started on the second floor of the freight house, but once the freight house was sold the museum moved to Washington and 2nd streets.

References

Paducah Railroad Museum
Official site * {{KentuckyHistoricalRR Transport infrastructure completed in 1925 National Register of Historic Places in McCracken County, Kentucky Former Louisville and Nashville Railroad stations Railway buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Railway freight houses on the National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Paducah, Kentucky Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway Transportation in McCracken County, Kentucky 1925 in rail transport 1925 establishments in Kentucky Tudor Revival architecture in Kentucky