Santa Fe Depot

Cherryvale, Kansas

Train at the Cherryvale Depot

Restored to its 1910-era grandeur, Cherryvale's Santa Fe Depot

is a living icon to a bygone era.

The depot was built during 1909-1910 for $18,000. The building followed a standard Santa Fe plan used during this period for larger-sized communities where brick stations were deemed necessary. It is one of only a few Santa Fe depots that combine both a covered drive-through entrance portico, located on the west side, and a covered outside waiting platform. It is the only depot of this style left standing on the Santa Fe's former Southern Kansas lines.

The building finally opened for business on June 1, 1910, and the Santa Fe passenger train that arrived at the new facility was one and a half hours late.

"Santa Fe passenger train No. 202, due here at 12:20 o'clock, was an hour and twenty-five minutes late today. The delay was caused by a wait at Independence for a delayed passenger train from Tulsa. No. 202 today was the first train into the new station and it established a bad precedent," reported the Cherryvale Republican of June 2, 1910.

Prior to the construction of the brick depot, Santa Fe shared depot facilities with the Frisco, which had an elegant, two-winged depot at the intersection of the two railroads. The Frisco depot was dismantled in 1983 after a fire destroyed a portion of the building in the late 1970s.

When Sante Fe passenger train service was eliminated in 1971, the Santa Fe depot was used sparingly by the railroad company. It became a workroom and storage area for the district signal maintainer until 1991 when the South Kansas and Oklahoma railroad purchased the Santa Fe line from Iola, Kans. to Tulsa, Okla.

During the last years that Santa Fe owned the depot, the building fell into a sad state of neglect. In 1991, Heart of the Heartlands, a non-profit railroad club, received permission from the Dick Webb family, owners of the SKOL railroad, to move into the depot. Heart of the Heartlands and the Webb family then began an effort to restore the building to its early-day prominence. It was rededicated in 1991 and is used for alternate monthly Heartland Meetings, community events and serves as the office for the Cherryvale Main Street Association. The far north end of the depot is used by the Cherry Valley Model Railroad Club, which meets each Friday evening to work on its large model railroad layout.