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Longview Train Depot

Introduction

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Longview Train Depot is a historic train station built in 1940 by the Texas and Pacific Railroad. The attractive, red-brick building was designed in the Colonial Revival style and features a brick cornice, stylized quoins (decorative elements at the corners of buildings), arched windows with keystones, dormers, and grey stone trim. The depot operates as an Amtrak station today and was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 2014. It is the only one of three train stations still standing in Longview.

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Longview Train Depot was built in 1940. Designed in the Colonial Revival style, it continues to operate today as an Amtrak station.

Longview Train Depot in Longview, Texas

Backstory and Context

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Railroading has been an important part of Longview's economy since 1870 when the Southern Pacific Railroad (SPR) established the town, which became the railroad's western terminus. The SPR purchased 150 acres from a local farmer named Ossmass Hitch Methvin and laid out the town's plan. Apparently, the railroad named the town Longview after the "view" of the area from Methvin's home, which stood on a hill overlooking the new townsite. The company built train tracks to Longview in early 1871 and shortly thereafter, the Texas and Pacific Railroad (T&P) acquired it (the federal government chartered the T&P to build a transcontinental railroad). In the coming years, other railroads arrived in Longview, including the International Railroad, which became the International & Great Northern Railroad, and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad.

Railroading continued to thrive during the next several decades. The Port Bolivar & Iron Ore railroad arrived in 1911, which further strengthened Longview's status as an important railroading center. The area around the first T&P station, which was built in 1874 where the current one is now, was the main area of railroading activity. As noted above, the Longview Depot was built in 1940. By the late 1930s, the 1874 depot was quite outdated so the city officials asked the T&P to erect the new one.

The depot had two waiting rooms, one for Blacks and ones for whites; they are now called the east and west waiting rooms. Also, passengers used to have to go down a staircase, walk through a tunnel, and then back up another staircase to reach the passenger train platform. The depot was renovated in 2013-2014.

Sources

Ferguson, Jo Lee. "Train depot seals place in history." October 30, 2019. https://www.news-journal.com/charm-view/travel/train-depot-seals-place-in-history/article_3b678dbc-cffd-11e9-bed9-93a7832cba67.html.

"Longview Tain Depot." The Historical Marker Database. Accessed November 12, 2020. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=138915.

"Longview, TX (LVW)." The Great American Stations. Accessed November 12, 2020. http://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/longview-tx-lvw.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

The Historical Marker Database

Additional Information