Old Warren and Ouachita Valley Railroad Depot

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.