Great Northern Depot (Princeton, Minnesota)
View of the previous platform side
The Great Northern Depot in Princeton, Minnesota is a former railway station of the Great Northern Railway. The building is a combination of Queen Anne and Jacobean architecture, and was built from locally made bricks with edges of sandstone. The building was added in 1977 in the National Register of Historic Places, where it is registered under the number 77,000,757. The 1856 -built " District No. 1" schoolhouse, the first school in Mille Lacs County, located next door.
Building
The 1902 built on the southwest corner of First Street and Tenth Avenue building - the construction costs amounted to 15,594 U.S. dollars ( in today's prices: $ 453,000 ) - replaced a previous wooden structure. The building has a total length of 215 feet ( 65 m) and a height of 35 feet ( about 11 m). The width was just over 37 feet ( 11.5 m), the actual freight shed is only 9.3 m wide. In order for the building at the time was the largest in Princeton. The products were sent here mainly products from agriculture and forestry, as well as a considerable amount of bricks from a brick three kilometers north of the town.
The freight shed has only one floor with a gable roof, the terminal building itself has a second turned Watched in the gable floor where there was a storage room. On the ground floor of the terminal building are adjacent to toilets and the office of the station manager, two waiting rooms, separate for men and women that comprise a surface area 69 m² and 81 m². The two waiting rooms are separated by the passage of the front of the station building to the platform. The freight shed behind the waiting room lying for men is divided into three rooms. The departments for baggage and express each take a length of 18 feet ( 5.7 m) across the entire width of the freight shed, and at the end of the building has the convenience of storage space for cargo, which has a length of 80 feet ( 24.6 m ) has. The interior of the terminal building is made of red oak, and on the floors is hard maple laid. In the cargo area, there is no comprehensive interior.
On the side of the platform extends over the entire length of the building stone -made a platform. An earlier wooden ramp at the end of the freight shed no longer exists.
History
The route of the Great Northern Railway initially led not by Princeton, but from Minneapolis on Elk River to St Cloud and another route from St. Cloud to Duluth over Milaca. James J. Hill called on local businessmen, $ 50,000 raise to make the trains run on Princeton. The money was collected and the construction of a railway line by Princeton could begin. 1877, incorporated Princeton at that time was a small town on the outskirts of the then vast forests that lived mainly by logging and sawmills. End of March 1886 started the survey work and on 24 October, the first rail sections between Elk River and Princeton were laid. There was hardly any obstacles on the planned route, the railway was already recorded on 29 November 1886. The new connection also the distance between Minneapolis and Duluth shortened. First, the trains operated in close succession, but in November 1899, the connection to Duluth was moved further east to a line running through Coon Rapids, Cambridge and Brook Park.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the local economy had changed, and the timber industry was agriculture and light industry vanished. The original station was found to be inadequate for the handling of goods. Therefore, it was decided to build a new station building. The work, which was planning the chief engineer of the Great Northern, James J. Hill and ran, started in September 1902., And on 30 January 1903, the building was officially put into operation.
In freight transport, especially bricks, potatoes, cattle and dairy products were handled, whereby the sending of bricks dominated since the four brickyards in Princeton produced together about 20 million bricks per year before the global economic crisis. For the removal of an average of 47 complete trains with 40 wagons were necessary. The potato harvest resulted in the early 1920s, each year up to 2000 truckloads that were sent mainly to the southern states. There were also, to a lesser extent, the envelope of butter, cheese, poultry and flour.
The transport service on the route in passenger traffic was bad, and in 1908 the better classes of cars were replaced by simpler car. The railway mail service was discontinued in 1930, and the passenger ended in 1952. Goods traffic was still continued until 1976, but then the route was abandoned.
Presence
The former train station now houses the Mille Lacs County Historical Society Depot Museum; some old rail cars are parked on railway land next to the building.
Among the existing vehicles include a 1924 -built Wilcox fire engine, a 1925er wooden boxcar the Milwaukee Road and a refrigerator car of the same company, a flat car of the Burlington Northern and a steel Caboose Burlington Northern, respectively from the year 1963.
Documents
- Built in the 1900s
- Museum in Minnesota
- Railway museum in the United States
- Former railway station in the United States
- Monument on the National Register of Historic Places (Minnesota)
- Building in Minnesota
- Mille Lacs County
- Great Northern Railway (United States)