You are here

Old Warren and Ouachita Valley Railroad Depot

-A A +A
1911. 325 W. Cedar St.
  • (Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, A Division of the Department of Arkansas Heritage)

This two-story frame structure is one of the few surviving wooden depots in the state. With its boxy outlines, pyramid roof, wide eaves, and shed-roofed dormers, it resembles a foursquare house, a type popular at the time. Twin entrances with transoms and sidelights, arched fanlights crowning the doors and windows on the side elevations, and the shingled upper story augment the domestic character. Railroads for transporting lumber from mill to market were an essential component of the timber industry that fueled much of the southern Arkansas economy for several decades in the early twentieth century. The Warren and Ouachita Valley Railroad was a joint venture of two major timber companies established in Warren around 1901: the Southern Lumber Company and the Arkansas Lumber Company. The short line traveled only sixteen miles from Warren to Banks, to meet a Rock Island Railroad connection. In addition to hauling lumber, the railroad offered daily passenger service, with connections to Memphis and Chicago. The Potlatch Corporation, which owns 470,000 acres of forest land in Arkansas, purchased the depot in the 1950s and restored it around 1970 for its short line, the Warren and Saline River Railroad.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Cyrus A. Sutherland with Gregory Herman, Claudia Shannon, Jean Sizemore Jeannie M. Whayne and Contributors
×

Data

What's Nearby

Citation

Cyrus A. Sutherland with Gregory Herman, Claudia Shannon, Jean Sizemore Jeannie M. Whayne and Contributors, "Old Warren and Ouachita Valley Railroad Depot", [Warren, Arkansas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/AR-01-BR6.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Arkansas

Buildings of Arkansas, Cyrus A. Sutherland and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2018, 210-210.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,