301 West Whitewater Street

Summary

Whitewater Passenger Depot
301 West Whitewater Street, Whitewater, Walworth County
Date of construction: 1891
Architect: J.T.W. Jennings

The Whitewater Passenger Depot is located at the east end of the historic downtown commercial district in Whitewater, a small city in southeastern Wisconsin. Whitewater was one of the first stops on the first railroad built in Wisconsin and the railroad link helped make the community an important industrial town in the nineteenth century.

The original depot was a nondescript frame building that became the freight depot in 1891 upon the completion of this building. The freight house, as the old depot became known, was demolished in the 1990s.

Architect J. T. W. Jennings designed the new brick and stone depot. Jennings had an important architectural career in Wisconsin, beginning with his work for the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad (Milwaukee Road).

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Whitewater Passenger Depot was mostly being used as a feed store, although telegraph service continued from the old ticket office. In 1973, the city of Whitewater acquired the Whitewater depot and leased it to the Whitewater Historical Society for a museum that opened in July of 1974. In 2012-2013, a rehabilitation project was completed, restoring the building’s interior and creating climate controlled storage in the basement. The building is open during museum hours.

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