700 4th St W

Summary

Menomonie Omaha Depot
700 4th Street West, Menomonie, Dunn County
Date of Construction: 1906

The railroad depot was an important civic building and in essence was to the modern city what the city gate was to the ancient cities. The depot housed the arrival and departure of travelers. Externally the most conspicuous part of the railroad depot became its silhouette. Late-nineteenth and early- to mid-twentieth century train passengers became familiar with the long rectangular buildings, wide sheltering overhangs and asymmetrical designs of the small town depot. The one-sided depots enabled passengers to board or disembark a train safely, without having to cross the train tracks. Such buildings continued in use throughout the United States for decades without many modifications. Passenger travel stimulated economic growth by allowing people to be mobile for business opportunities.

At the turn of the century, the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad recognized the growing passenger market in Menomonie and provided the city a more substantial passenger station replacing the small drafty 1880 station. The 1905 blueprints were designed by nationally recognized architect Horace P. Padley. During this period in his career he was an architect in the office of Engineering for the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad. Whether small or large, each depot received suggestions from the community. By 1916, more than 85,000 depots and stations had been constructed throughout the United States.

From 1906 to 1961, the Menomonie Omaha Depot served as a hub for arrivals and departures of daily trains linking Menomonie residents with the rest of the country. It was the center of modern transportation allowing Menomonie residents to travel for business, vacation, or to visit friends and relatives living in other places. Americans enjoyed mobility and would use rail travel until the 1950s and 1960s when Americans would fall in love with the automobile. The automobile offered unique, private and independent travel.

The depot continues to be an area landmark and a symbol of the nineteenth and twentieth-century railroad industry. Most importantly, it remains as an excellent example of how the railroad industry and the passenger depot enhanced the growth of the country and small logging towns such as Menomonie, Wisconsin.

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