Established | 1973 |
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Location | 506 W. Michigan Street, Duluth, Minnesota, United States |
Coordinates | 46°46′53″N92°6′14″W / 46.78139°N 92.10389°W |
Type | Arts and Culture Center |
Architect | Peabody and Stearns |
Public transit access | DTA |
Website | experiencethedepot |
Duluth, MN | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Former Amtrak inter-city rail station | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
General information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Line(s) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Platforms | 3 island platform 1 side platform [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tracks | 7 [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 1892 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Closed | 1985 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Proposed services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Former services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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St. Louis County Depot | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architectural style | Châteauesque | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NRHP reference No. | 71001028 [2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Added to NRHP | December 9, 1971 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The St. Louis County Depot is a historic railroad station in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. It was built as a union station in 1892, serving seven railroads at its peak. Rail service ceased in 1969 and the building was threatened with demolition until it reopened in 1973 as St. Louis County Heritage & Arts Center (The Depot). [3] Train service also resumed from 1974 to 1985, by Amtrak. [3]
Owned today by St. Louis County, the building houses two museums (Lake Superior Railroad Museum, and St. Louis County Historical Society Museum), two performing arts organizations (DSSO and Minnesota Ballet), and serves as the departure point for the North Shore Scenic Railroad. [4]
The Depot is located at 506 West Michigan Avenue right off of I-35, which runs immediately southeast of the Depot. The historic building houses several contemporary and historic artworks and artifacts, as well as an experimental theater, and also hosts public events in its Great Hall. The 1977 addition, houses a large theater and a ballet studio. The lower station has one side platform and three island platforms that provide access to its seven tracks. The outer southeast active track is used by a scenic railroad, with the remainder being used to display various trains and train cars. [1]
The current building is the second depot built on this site. The first, a small wooden building, was built in 1869. That same year a large group of Swedish immigrants arrived in Duluth, seeking work on the first railroad line to serve the city, the Lake Superior and Mississippi.
The Depot was designed by architectural firm Peabody and Stearns. Many local materials were used in the French Norman-style building, including granite, sandstone, and yellow brick. After two years of construction, the Depot was completed in 1892 at a cost of $615,000, at which point the earlier depot was demolished.
Over the decades, it served seven railroads: Duluth & Iron Range, Duluth, Missabe, & Iron Range, Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic, Duluth Missabe & Northern, Great Northern Railway, Northern Pacific, and the Saint Paul & Duluth.
The main entrance to the building on Michigan Street opened into a "general waiting room" (today known as the Great Hall) which featured a newsstand and a lunch counter. In addition the main floor also boasted a barber shop, a Western Union telegraph office, a smoking room, a ladies' waiting room, and a men's toilet. [5]
A large train shed originally covered the building's platforms, but it was removed in 1924 and replaced by the canopies that remain.
Its last trains in the late 1960s were the Great Northern Railway's Badger and Gopher, both to Minneapolis and St. Paul (later absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad) [6] and the Northern Pacific Railway ran local unnamed service to St. Paul and Minneapolis [7] and service to Staples, Minnesota. [8]
The station closed in 1969. [3] It was scheduled for demolition but was purchased from the railroad for the bargain price of $250,000. The edifice was in excellent condition, but renovations still cost $4.7 million. [3]
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Duluth Union Depot in 1971 for its state-level significance in the themes of architecture and transportation. [9] It was nominated as a unique example of the era's large railroad terminals and the connection they provided to the rest of the nation. [10]
While The Depot continued to house its other tenants, Amtrak provided rail service to the station for nearly a decade (1977–1985). In 1975, Amtrak launched the Arrowhead to run from the Great Northern Depot in Minneapolis to Superior, Wisconsin [11] (south of Duluth, just across the Saint Louis Bay of Lake Superior).
Amtrak Thruway service connected Duluth to Superior until 1977, when Arrowhead was extended the 4 miles (6 km) north to the Depot. [12] In 1978, the North Star replaced the Arrowhead and extended the rail service south from Minneapolis–Saint Paul to Chicago, Illinois. [13] The next stop for both Amtrak trains was in Superior. In 1981, service by the North Star was truncated to the Midway Station in Saint Paul. [14] In 1985, Amtrak discontinued the North Star and all passenger rail service to Duluth.
Scenic train rides from the station are provided by the North Shore Scenic Railroad, a heritage railroad operated by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. Excursions of one to six hours' duration run northeast along Lake Superior's northern shore to destinations that include the Lester River, the area of Palmers, and the city of Two Harbors. The railroad runs other special excursions throughout the year, and may be chartered as well. [15]
SLCHS exhibits housed in The Depot include Veterans Memorial Hall.
The ballet has three rehearsal spaces in The Depot; it mounts occasional events and performances in the building.
The Depot Foundation is dedicated to preserving The Depot as a vibrant and welcoming forum for the arts, culture and history through managing and growing a permanent endowment.
The Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra evokes a mix between the beautiful consistency of classically trained musicians with an accessible experience for new and returning guests.
In 2011, renovations to the depot were planned to serve the Northern Lights Express Higher-speed rail service from Minneapolis to Duluth. This 155-mile (249 km) project is proposed to roughly follow the route of Amtrak's former North Star and is expected to include stops in Coon Rapids, Isanti, Cambridge, and Hinckley in Minnesota and in Superior. [16]
Milwaukee Road 261 is a class "S3" 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in Schenectady, New York in July 1944 for the Milwaukee Road (MILW). It was used for heavy mainline freight and passenger work until being retired by the MILW in 1956.
Saint Paul Union Depot is a historic railroad station and intermodal transit hub in the Lowertown neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota. It serves light rail, intercity rail, intercity bus, and local bus services.
The Soo Line Railroad is one of the primary United States railroad subsidiaries for the CPKC Railway, one of six U.S. Class I railroads, controlled through the Soo Line Corporation. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (MStP&SSM), which was commonly known as the Soo Line after the phonetic spelling of Sault, it was formed in 1961 by the consolidation of that company with two other CPKC subsidiaries: The Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway, and the Wisconsin Central Railway. It is also the successor to other Class I railroads, including the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. On the other hand, a large amount of mileage was spun off in 1987 to Wisconsin Central Ltd., now part of the Canadian National Railway. The Soo Line Railroad and the Delaware and Hudson Railway, CPKC's other major subsidiary, presently do business as the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). Most equipment has been repainted into the CP scheme, but the U.S. Surface Transportation Board groups all of the company's U.S. subsidiaries under the Soo Line name for reporting purposes. The Minneapolis headquarters are in the Canadian Pacific Plaza building, having moved from the nearby Soo Line Building.
The Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR), informally known as the Missabe Road, was a railroad operating in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin that used to haul iron ore and later taconite to the Great Lakes ports of Duluth and Two Harbors, Minnesota. Control of the railway was acquired on May 10, 2004, by the Canadian National Railway (CN) when it purchased the assets of Great Lakes Transportation.
Midway is a former Amtrak intercity train station in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It was last served by Amtrak's daily Empire Builder, with service from Chicago, Illinois to Seattle, Washington or Portland, Oregon. When the station opened March 1, 1978, it was also served briefly by the long-distance North Coast Hiawatha, and the Hiawatha and Arrowhead, the latter combined as the North Star later that year.
The Lake Superior Railroad Museum is a railroad museum in Duluth, Minnesota, United States.
The North Shore Scenic Railroad is a heritage railroad that operates between Duluth and Two Harbors, Minnesota, United States, along 28 miles (45 km) of the Lakefront Line, once part of the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railroad.
Endion station is a former train station in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. It was built in 1899 to serve the Endion neighborhood but was relocated to Canal Park in 1986 to make way for expansion of Interstate 35. Passenger service through the station had ceased in 1961 and freight service in 1978.
Winona station is an Amtrak train station in Winona, Minnesota, United States. It is served by the daily round trips of the Borealis and Empire Builder. The station building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 as the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Station. The station is typically the second-busiest Amtrak station in Minnesota.
St. Cloud station is an Amtrak intercity train station in St. Cloud, Minnesota, United States. It is served by the daily Empire Builder on its route connecting Chicago, Illinois to Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. The next stop westbound is Staples while the next stop eastbound is Saint Paul Union Depot.
Target Field station is a multimodal commuter train and light rail station in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Located in the North Loop area of Downtown Minneapolis, the station is named for Target Field, the Minnesota Twins baseball stadium. METRO Blue Line light rail service started on November 14, 2009; Northstar Line commuter rail service started November 16, 2009; METRO Green Line light rail service started on June 14, 2014.
The Minneapolis Great Northern Depot, also known as Great Northern Station, was a passenger railroad station which served Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. It was built in 1913 and demolished in 1978. It was located on Hennepin Avenue next to the Hennepin Avenue Bridge and across the street from the main Minneapolis Post Office.
The Northern Lights Express (NLX) project is a planned higher-speed rail service that would run 155 miles (249 km) between Minneapolis and Duluth primarily in the U.S. state of Minnesota. A portion of the proposed line would run through neighboring Wisconsin to serve Duluth's "Twin Port" of Superior. Plans are to upgrade an existing BNSF Railway freight line to allow trains to travel at up to 90 miles per hour (145 km/h). The train service would provide an alternative to travel along Interstate 35 corridor between Duluth and the Twin Cities.
The North Star was a passenger train operated by Amtrak between Duluth, Minnesota and Saint Paul, Minnesota. It originally operated from Chicago, Illinois via St. Paul to Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, but was soon cut back to a Saint Paul–Duluth train. The service relied in part on funding from the state of Minnesota.
The Arrowhead was a daily passenger train operated by Amtrak between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, in the United States. After two years of operation, service was extended from Superior to Duluth, Minnesota.
The Hinckley Subdivision is a railway line that connects the Twin Cities to the Twin Ports in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Historically owned by the Great Northern Railway until 1970 and then the Burlington Northern Railroad until 1995–1996, it is now owned by BNSF Railway. The line branches north from the Staples Subdivision at Coon Creek junction in Coon Rapids, MN, and ends at Boylston junction between Foxboro and Superior, Wisconsin. There, the tracks meet the Lakes Subdivision from north-central Minnesota that bring trains into the Duluth–Superior area.
Duluth and Northeastern 28 is a preserved 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive built in 1906 by the Pittsburgh Works of American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was restored to operating condition by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum from 2011-2017 and now operates in excursion service on the North Shore Scenic Railroad.
Madison station is a former railroad station in Madison, Wisconsin. The station served passenger and freight trains of the Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW). Passenger service ended in 1965 and the passenger station and freight depot was bought by Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) and has been renovated to serve as offices. The station and freight depot are listed as contributing properties on the National Register of Historic Places East Wilson Street Historic District. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad had tracks paralleling the C&NW and also had a nearby passenger station that outlasted the C&NW station as an active station by several years.
The Superior Union Depot or Superior station of Superior, Wisconsin was built in 1905, replacing a previous depot, which had burned down in 1904. It was built of Lake Superior brown sandstone and designed by Duluth architects German and Lignell. The depot primarily served the Great Northern Railway, Northern Pacific Railway and Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway.