Princeton Great Northern Railway Depot
| Princeton Great Northern Railway Depot | |
|---|---|
 View from the former platform side |
|
| Data | |
| place | Princeton, Minnesota |
| Construction year | 1902 |
| Coordinates | 45 ° 34 '9 " N , 93 ° 35' 16.2" W |
| particularities | |
| Monument on the National Register of Historic Places | |
The Great Northern Depot in Princeton , Minnesota is a former station building of the Great Northern Railway . The building is a combination of Queen Anne and Jacobean architecture, and is constructed of locally made bricks with sandstone edges . The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, where it is registered under number 77000757. The District No 1 Schoolhouse, built in 1856 and the first school in Mille Lacs County , is next door.
Building
The 1902 built on the southwest corner of First Street and Tenth Avenue building - the construction costs amounted to 15,594 US dollars (in today's prices: 477.000 $) - replaced a previous wooden structure. The structure has a total length of 215 feet (approximately 65 m) and a height of 35 feet (approximately 11 m). The width was just over 37 feet (around 11.5 m), the actual cargo shed is only 9.3 m wide. This made the building the largest in Princeton at the time. The products sent from here were mainly agricultural and forestry products as well as a considerable amount of bricks from a brick factory three kilometers north of the village.
The freight shed has only one floor with a gable roof , the dispatch building itself has a second floor fitted into the roof gable, on which there was a storage room. On the ground floor of the terminal building there are toilets and the station manager's office, two waiting rooms, separate for men and women, with an area of 69 m² and 81 m² respectively. The two waiting rooms are separated by the passage from the front of the station building to the platform. The freight shed behind the men's waiting room is divided into three rooms. The baggage and express compartments are each 18 feet (5.7 m) long across the width of the cargo shed, and at the end of the building is the general cargo storage area, 80 feet (24.6 m) long ) Has. The interior of the terminal building is made of red oak and hard maple is laid on the floors. There is no comprehensive interior fittings in the cargo area.
On the platform side, a stone platform runs the entire length of the building. An earlier wooden ramp at the end of the cargo shed no longer exists.
history
The route of the Great Northern Railway did not initially run through Princeton, but from Minneapolis via Elk River to St. Cloud and another route from St. Cloud via Milaca to Duluth . James J. Hill urged local businessmen to raise $ 50,000 to run the trains through Princeton. The money was collected and construction of a railway line through Princeton could begin. Princeton, incorporated in 1877, was at that time a small town on the edge of what was then still vast forest areas, which lived mainly from logging and sawmills. At the end of March 1886, surveying began and on October 24th, the first sections of rail were laid between Elk River and Princeton. Since there were hardly any obstacles on the planned route, rail traffic could already be started on November 29, 1886. The new connection also shortened the distance between Minneapolis and Duluth. At first the trains ran in close succession, but in November 1899 the connection to Duluth was relocated to a route further east through Coon Rapids , Cambridge and Brook Park .
At the beginning of the 20th century the local economy had changed and the timber industry had given way to agriculture and light industry . The original station turned out to be insufficient for handling the goods. That is why it was decided to build a new station building. The work, which the chief engineer of the Great Northern, James J. Hill, planned and directed, began in September 1902. and on January 30, 1903 the structure officially opened.
Bricks, potatoes, cattle and dairy products were handled in the freight traffic, whereby the shipping of bricks dominated, since the four brick factories in Princeton together produced around 20 million bricks per year before the Great Depression. An average of 47 complete trains, each with 40 wagons, were required for removal. The potato harvest in the early 1920s resulted in up to 2,000 truckloads a year, which were mainly sent to the southern states . In addition, to a lesser extent, there was the handling of butter, cheese, poultry and flour.
Passenger traffic on the route deteriorated, and in 1908 the better car classes were replaced by simpler cars. The rail mail connection was discontinued in 1930 and passenger traffic ended in 1952. Freight traffic continued until 1976, but then the line was closed.
present
The former train station now houses the Mille Lacs County Historical Society Depot Museum ; some old railroad cars are parked on tracks next to the building.
Existing vehicles include a Wilcox fire engine built in 1924, a 1925 wooden boxcar from Milwaukee Road and a refrigerator car from the same company, a flat car from Burlington Northern and a steel caboose from Burlington Northern, all from 1963.
supporting documents
- ^ Mary Ann North: The National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota . Minnesota Historical Society , 2003, ISBN 0-87351-448-3 .
- ↑ Extract from the National Register of Historic Places - No. 77000757. Retrieved May 25, 2013
- ^ About Us , Mille Lacs County Historical Society
- ↑ a b c d e f National Register of Historic Places nomination form pp. 2–3
- ^ A b c d Baldwin Township - Great Northern Railway . Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ^ A b c Petition seeks to restore depot (English) , Princeton Union Eagle. Retrieved September 20, 2007.