The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway brought passenger service to Brownwood on December 31, 1885. At its peak in the 1940s, fifteen trains a day came through Brownwood. Chicago-based Hunt gave a Spanish Mission flavor to his mid-size stations for the Santa Fe line. Stucco wall finishes, round-arched openings, low-pitched hipped roofs of red tile with deep overhangs, brick stringcourses, and the contrast of brick ornamenting stucco surfaces give the stations a visual lightness not found in an all-brick design.
Adjacent to the station and connected by a covered arcade is The Harvey House Restaurant and Hotel of 1911, a frequent complement to Santa Fe stations under contract with the Fred Harvey restaurant chain (see Harvey House Feeds the West, p. 339). Typically a Harvey House facility was integrated into the station, but here it is a separate building. The two-story building is related to the depot’s design, but more clearly Prairie Style and with rectangular windows. The first floor contained the restaurant, coffee shop, tearoom, and kitchen facilities, and hotel rooms were on the second floor.
Nearby the Martin and Frances Lehnis Railroad Museum (2007, Halff Associates; 700 E. Adams Street) is dedicated to the railroad history of Texas and the Southwest. The industrial character of the building, with its long central clerestory-over-shed roofs designed by Greg Schon for Dallas-based Halff, suits the display of railroad artifacts and history.