Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Freight Depot, Atchison

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad passed south of Atchison's industrial district. The substantial freight depot the company built south of the tracks in 1880 is composed of random range ashlar with contrasting corner quoins and window surrounds. The taller block of the building is a two-story section on the west end for office space and a one-story freight section to the east. Both are covered with gable roofs with a wide overhang. By the time the building was nominated to the National Register in 2000, the taller block had been converted into twentieth-century office space and the freight portion retained an open floor plan with a wood framing hut in the northwest corner.

By the mid-1870s, eight railroads passed through Atchison and employed over 700 men locally in machine shops, the freight depot and the passenger depot. The Atchison and Nebraska Railroad Company took settlers from Atchison to Nebraska towns, ending at Lincoln; it touted Atchison as the "railroad center of the West" with 66 trains arriving and departing daily. These were boom years for the town, attracting industries including grain milling, grain storage and lumbering. Only Leavenworth and Topeka contained more manufacturing activity than Atchison in this era. Nearby 250 new buildings were constructed in Atchison just in 1872 and the town's population topped 13,000 by 1870. A massive passenger station, Union Station, was constructed in 1880 but was rebuilt in 1890 after fires. The Union Station building was demolished in 1950.

The AT&SF Freight Depot at Atchison was nominated to the historic registers for its links to the era when transportation was tied to the railroads; it is the only surviving building in Atchison related to ATS&F operations. The freight depot also is significant under architecture and is unusual in that it was custom built to meet the needs of the company in Atchison. Stone freight houses also are a rarity; this building's additions were in the historic era reflecting its continued use for decades.

The Atchison Historical Society established a museum in 1968, one year after the group was founded. The museum moved into the freight depot in 1989. The museum featured a special exhibit in 2019 of the artwork of a county artist and teacher, Walter Yost, recreating his Barn Studio. Yost was born on a farm southwest of Atchison in 1911 and graduated from U. of Kansas with a fine arts degree in 1939. He spent two years painting murals at the university before returning to the family farm. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from U. of Kansas in 1958. Yost was a long-time art teacher at Atchison Junior-Senior High School and later at Highland Community College. Yost retired in 1977 and passed away in 1995.

Atchison and Nebraska Railroad Company. From Atchison, KS, the Railroad Center of the West, to Lincoln, NEB, the Great Political Capital of the West. Company brochure. May 1st 1873. Accessed July 10th 2020. https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/213190.

Atchison County Historical Society. True to his Roots - Walter Yost Splash Page, Home. January 1st 2020. Accessed July 15th 2020. http://www.atchisonhistory.org/.

Nottingham, Stephen. Walter A. Yost (1911-1995), Memorial 82687573 , Find A Grave. December 29th 2011. Accessed July 15th 2020. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/82687573/walter-a_-yost.

Ringler, K.. 005-0260-0008 Atchison AT&SF Freight Depot, 200 S 10th St, Kansas Historic Resources Inventory. Accessed July 10th 2020. https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?in=005-0260-00008.

Wolfenbarger, Deon. NRHP Nomination for Atchison AT&SF Freight Depot. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 2001.