Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot
Hopkinsville station is located in Kentucky
Hopkinsville station
Hopkinsville station is located in the United States
Hopkinsville station
LocationHopkinsville, Kentucky
Coordinates36°51′49″N 87°29′7″W / 36.86361°N 87.48528°W / 36.86361; -87.48528
Built1892
Part ofHopkinsville Commercial Historic District (ID79003633)
NRHP reference No.75000745[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPAugust 1, 1975
Designated CPApril 30, 1979

The L & N Railroad Depot in the Hopkinsville Commercial Historic District of Hopkinsville, Kentucky is a historic railroad station on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in 1892.[2]

The year 1832 saw the first of many attempts to woo a railroad to Hopkinsville. This first attempt was to connect Hopkinsville to Eddyville, Kentucky. In 1868 Hopkinsville finally obtained a railroad station, operated by the Evansville, Henderson, & Nashville Railroad. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad acquired the railroad in 1879.[3]

The Hopkinsville depot is a single-story frame building with a slate roof. It has six rooms: a Ladies Waiting room (the room closest to the street), a General Waiting Room, a Colored Waiting Room, a baggage room (the furthest room from the street), a ticket office (the only room which connected to all three waiting rooms), and a ladies' restroom. Immediately outsides were warehouses for freight, usually tobacco.[4]

Its last long-distance train was the Louisville and Nashville's Georgian, last operating in 1968.[5]

During its operating years, the Hopkinsville depot was a popular layover spot for those traveling by train. It was the only Louisville & Nashville station between Evansville, Indiana and Nashville, Tennessee where it was legal to drink alcohol. Hopkinsville got the nickname "Hop town" due to train passengers asking the conductors when they would arrive at Hopkinsville, so they could "hop off and get a drink".[6]

The Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 1, 1975. It is owned by the City of Hopkinsville and was occupied by the Pennyroyal Arts Council until 2019. That year the council moved out after a fire in an exterior wall and the building was still vacant as of January 2023.[7] The depot's future was uncertain as it requires an estimated $2M USD in structural repairs and those costs are in competition with other city funding priorities.[8]

CSX, which bought out the Louisville & Nashville, still run freight trains on the tracks next to the depot.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. ↑ Prairie Bluestem: Hopkinsville's Railroad
  3. ↑ "Railfanning in Hopkinsville, Ky". Archived from the original on 2008-05-10. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
  4. ↑ Berg, Walter. Buildings and Structures of American Railroads (J. Wiley & Sons, 1893) pg.334,335
  5. ↑ Georgian at 'American Rails' https://www.american-rails.com/georgian.html
  6. ↑ Rennick, Robert. Kentucky Place Names (University Press of Kentucky, 1984) pg.144
  7. ↑ Brown, Jennifer P. (15 January 2019). "Fire forces evacuation of L&N Train Depot downtown". HoptownChronicle. Hopkinsville, KY: HoptownChronicle.org. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
  8. ↑ Brown, Jennifer P. (19 January 2023). "City officials pledge to address public queries about L&N Train Depot's future". HoptownChronicle. Hopkinsville, KY: HoptownChronicle.org. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
  9. ↑ Pennyroyal Arts Council - Hopkinsville, KY
Preceding station Louisville and Nashville Railroad Following station
Kelly
toward St. Louis
 St. Louis – Nashville Casky
toward Nashville
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