The South Torrington Union Pacific Depot was built in 1926 just to the south of
Torrington, Wyoming
Torrington is a city in, and the county seat of, Goshen County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 6,501 at the 2010 census.
It is the home of Eastern Wyoming College, and is the surrounding region's center of commercial activity. With ...
. It was designed by
Gilbert Stanley Underwood
Gilbert Stanley Underwood (1890–1960) was an American architect best known for his National Park lodges. Born in 1890, Underwood received his B.A. from Yale in 1920 and a M.A. from Harvard in 1923. After opening an office in Los Angeles that ...
in the
Mission Revival
The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...
and
Spanish Colonial Revival
The Spanish Colonial Revival Style ( es, Arquitectura neocolonial española) is an architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
In the ...
as a combined passenger and freight depot.
The line was principally intended to serve a
sugar refinery
A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or beets into white refined sugar.
Many cane sugar mills produce raw sugar, which is sugar that still contains molasses, giving it more colour (and impurities) than the white ...
in the vicinity.
By 1928 it was extended to serve as a cutoff from the
Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
branch along the
North Platte River
The North Platte River is a major tributary of the Platte River and is approximately long, counting its many curves.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 21, 2011 In a ...
to the main transcontinental line and was known as the North Platte Cutoff.
The ground level comprises a freight and baggage room, a holdover room and record room, agent's office, passenger waiting room, toilets and a hallway leading to the upstairs apartment. A basement includes a storage room and a furnace room. The upstairs portion contains living quarters for the station agent, including a living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom.
Homesteaders Museum
The Homesteaders Museum is a museum of county and area railroad history located in the depot and adjacent buildings. The depot features a display of homesteading items and local memorabilia from the first settlement in 1834 up to 1976, when
Homesteading
Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of food, and may also involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craft work for household use or sale. Pur ...
ended. Also on display are a Lincoln Land Company house with artifacts from an early ranch family, an original homestead shack, a one-room schoolhouse, a Union Pacific Caboose with railroad items from the
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
and
Burlington Northern Railroad
The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a Mergers and acquisitions, merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996.
Its historical lineage begins in the e ...
, a transportation building with vehicles, and railroad cars.
References
External links
Homesteaders Museum- City of Torrington
* - ''at the National Park Service's NRHP database''
South Torrington Union Pacific Depot- ''at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office''
Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming
Union Pacific Railroad stations
Gilbert Stanley Underwood buildings
Mission Revival architecture in Wyoming
Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in Wyoming
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1926
1926 establishments in Wyoming
National Register of Historic Places in Goshen County, Wyoming
Torrington, Wyoming
Former railway stations in Wyoming
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