Bunkie station is an 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 suc ...

Bunkie, Louisiana Bunkie is a city in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,171 at the 2010 census. History Bunkie was founded as a station terminus on the Texas and Pacific Railroad line. It was named for the daughter (whose nickname w ...

History

The

Texas and Pacific Railway The Texas and Pacific Railway Company (known as the T&P) was created by federal charter in 1871 with the purpose of building a southern transcontinental railroad between Marshall, Texas, and San Diego, California. History Under the influence of ...

established a station on the main line at Bunkie in 1882. A town formed around it as a shipping point for cotton and cotton-related industries such as cotton seed oil production. The current depot, built in 1911, is not the original freight depot, but is the only existing reminder of the importance of the railway to the founding of Bunkie. With . The 1911 depot is a two-story brick building alongside the railroad tracks in downtown Bunkie. Of no particular architectural style, the building sits on a heavily stuccoed dado and has a distinctive bay window overlooking the tracks. It is one of only three remaining larger multi-story urban train depots in Louisiana built in the early 20th century, the others are the Central Railroad Station in

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population o ...

, and the Kansas City Southern Depot in DeQuincy.

Later years

Though the building has gone through several changes over the years, it remains easily identifiable as a train depot. The depot 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 v ...

in 1991 as the Texas and Pacific Railroad Depot. It was remodeled in 2001 and houses a small railroad museum and the headquarters of the Bunkie Chamber of Commerce.

History

Later years

References

See also