Minneapolis Great Northern Depot
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The Minneapolis Great Northern Depot was a passenger train station that served Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was built in 1913 and torn down in 1978. It was located on Hennepin Avenue next to the Hennepin Avenue Bridge and across the street from the main Minneapolis Post Office.
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[edit] History
The station was sometimes called the Minneapolis Union Depot, which actually was the name of the previous station on the opposite side of Hennepin Avenue that had been in use for 30 years. The older Union Depot was razed. The current building on that site is the central downtown Minneapolis Post Office. The Stone Arch Bridge was built to serve the original Minneapolis Union Depot and provided access to the Great Northern Depot. The Minneapolis BNSF Rail Bridge, an older crossing of the Mississippi River to the north, also served the depot with a cutoff track located on the bridge.
The Minneapolis Great Northern Depot was built to serve the railroad empire of James J. Hill. It was constructed at the height of the City Beautiful movement, at a time when Minneapolis was striving to revive the decaying Bridge Square area. The building was designed by Charles Sumner Frost, who had earlier designed the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Depot Freight House and Train Shed, and then later the Saint Paul Union Depot.[1] (Frost had also supervised the construction of the Navy Pier in Chicago and the Maine State Building at the Columbian Exposition of 1893. )
The Depot was constructed of brick and reinforced concrete. It was faced with light Kettle River sandstone. It was designed in a Beaux-Arts style with a Doric colonnade facing Hennepin Avenuue. The train tracks ran Northwest - Southeast along the Mississippi river, under Hennepin Avenue and into a pass-through train shed.
[edit] Trains
It was the destination for trains of several railroads that served Minneapolis including
The Empire Builder, Twin Cities 400, and North Coast Limited terminated at the Depot.
[edit] Demise and reuse of the current site
Passenger train service declined from a peak of 125 daily trains during World War II to just a few national routes on a sometimes daily basis. When Amtrak was formed in 1971, the trains stopped at the depot for a short time until the Midway station was constructed. With Minneapolis and Saint Paul service consolidated in the Midway of Saint Paul, it ended passenger train service to downtown Minneapolis. The Great Northern Depot was demolished in 1978. The area lay vacant and was adjacent to the Berman Buckskin building and the Chicago Great Western railway freight warehouse. All these buildings were torn down to make way for development.
The site is occupied by the third and current Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis building.
A new downtown commuter rail station has been proposed at the site of the Twins Ballpark, which is on the BNSF line. It would be located five blocks West and two blocks North of the former depot.
[edit] Other train depots in Minneapolis and Saint Paul
[edit] Extant
- Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Depot Freight House and Train Shed - Former Minneapolis destination for Milwaukee Road, Soo Line, and Rock Island passenger trains
- Midway (Amtrak station) - The current passenger station serving the Twin Cities
- Minnehaha Depot - Located near the Minnehaha falls park, part of the Minnesota Transportation Museum
- Saint Paul Union Depot - Former St. Paul passenger train destination
[edit] Demolished
- Chicago Great Western Railway Station - now demolished, located on South Washington Avenue
- Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway Station - now demolished, located on North 5th street
- Electric Short Line Railway (Luce Line) Depot
- Minneapolis Northfield and Southern Depot
- Minneapolis Union Depot - the predecessor to the Great Northern Depot, located on the South side of Hennepin Avenue next to the Mississippi river
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Lost Twin Cities by Larry Millett. Minnesota Historical Society Press. 1992
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