Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad Company Freight Depot

The Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad Company Freight Depot is one of the oldest and largest early railroad buildings in Florida. It is also one of three stations built before the Civil War still standing. It was originally built in 1858 by the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad, which provided freight and passenger service east to Lake City. Over time, other railroad companies extended services to the east, west, and north. The building is in the shape of a long rectangle and features Classical ornamentation. It was added to National Register of Historic Places in 1997. The station operated until 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck the southern coast. An organization called the Southern Rail Commission has been leading an effort to revive train service from New Orleans to Florida. The building now houses the Tallahassee Visitor Information Center, a cinema, and a business incubator.

When the depot was built (a two-story addition was constructed in 1880), Tallahassee had become Florida's largest cotton and agricultural shipping hub. This is perhaps unsurprising given that north central Florida was ideally suited to farming. Farmers in the region transported livestock, sweet potatoes, corn, and cotton by wagon to the the city where it was then shipped by rail to Pensacola or Jacksonville. Cotton, of course, was by far the largest crop and the most profitable. The large volume of cotton production prompted the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad to erect the depot. In 1860, Leon County had the state's largest population and produced 16,686 bales of cotton.

Agricultural commerce played a lesser role after the Civil War, as many plantations gradually stopped growing cotton and other crops. Although the demand for cotton was still high, the new sharecropping system put in place reduced profits and the lack of diversification and land management depleted soils. Northern sportsmen also purchased plantations and used them for quail hunting. This further decreased the amount of agricultural land and, in turn, the need the transport agricultural goods by railroads. However, passenger service and other kinds of freight were able to keep the station in operation as the dairy, timber and turpentine industries developed. Traveling by rail to the city was the best way to get there, including students of Tallahassee Normal College for Colored Students (now Florida A&M University) and Florida State College (now university). The fact that the city was the state capital also contributed to the railroad's importance.

By 1900, a number of railroad companies came to own the station. That year the Seaboard Air Line Railway bought it and three years later built a new passenger depot across the street. World War II saw a significant increase in usage of both stations as the city became an important military transportation hub. In 1967, the company merged with Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, which is now called CSX. Passenger service (in the 1903 depot) ended in 1971 but freight service continued (including after the CSX bought the railroad in 1980). Amtrak passenger service began in 1992 in the old freight depot but, as stated above, stopped in 2005.

"Florida Civil War Heritage Trail." Florida Division of Historical Resources. p. 31. Accessed May 5, 2014.  http://dos.myflorida.com/media/32357/civilwarheritagetrail.pdf.

Lanham, Don & Jones, Robert O. "Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad Company Freight Depot." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. December 30, 1997. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/7091d998-2750-45c3-8c8c-17d1605bcd15.