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Historic Missouri Pacific Railroad Depot, Delta Cultural Center

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1915; 1990, Witsell Evans Rasco; 2008, Jameson Architects. Missouri St. at Natchez St.
  • (Photograph by Ruth Hawkins)

Helena developed as an important river port and transportation center. Before the Civil War, the town prospered as a shipping outlet for farm and forest products of the Arkansas Delta, and during the 1870s, the lumber market sustained as many as five railroad lines here. This depot was constructed for the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad (later the Missouri Pacific) on the site of an earlier depot. After years of disuse or no use, it was given to the State of Arkansas in 1985 to be the keystone of the Delta Cultural Center. The front section of the long red brick Craftsman style building is two stories in height with a red tile hipped roof with deep eaves supported on large wooden brackets. The first floor had segregated waiting rooms and related facilities, and offices were on the upper floor. The long one-story section was used for freight. The restored building contains exhibits about Arkansas and the Mississippi River Delta.

Writing Credits

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

What's Nearby

St. Mary’s Catholic Church
Edwardian Inn (William A. and Sallie Short House)
Centennial Baptist Church
Phillips County Courthouse
Moore-Hornor House, Delta Cultural Center

Citation

Cyrus A. Sutherland with Gregory Herman, Claudia Shannon, Jean Sizemore Jeannie M. Whayne and Contributors, "Historic Missouri Pacific Railroad Depot, Delta Cultural Center", [Helena, Arkansas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/AR-01-PH10.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Arkansas

Buildings of Arkansas, Cyrus A. Sutherland and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2018, 251-252.

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