This cute wood-frame depot which served as the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad Passenger Depot (part of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad) now serves as the gift shop and exhibit space at the Douglas Railroad Museum.
From the Nomination form, some details about the building: (
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"Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad Passenger Depot
Converse County/ WY
Narrative Description
The FE&MV passenger depot is a one-story wood structure/ measuring 64' 2" by 26' 2", topped by a shingled, gable roof that is supported by 6 ornamental brackets on each side. Of balloon frame wood construction with horizontal wood siding/ the depot sits on a foundation made from railroad ties. The structure features two brick chimneys and a 4-window bay that dominates the west facade. The depot stands alone
in the rail yards, which bound the western end of the principal business section of Douglas. The design of the passenger depot was a standardized plan developed by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad/ of which the FE&MV was a part...
. . .
It is quite evident that the Douglas passenger depot was a modification of common plans used by the FE&MV and the C&NW during this period. Common plans permitted companies to order required materials in bulk and have them erected by previously experienced railroad workmen. Sometimes smaller depots were assembled in a company's shop and transported on flatcars to the new site, although this does not seem to have been the case with the Douglas passenger depot. While generally plain and utilitarian in design, these C&NW and FE&MV depots usually featured a gable roof and a gabled dormer over the rectangular bay. Internal evidence indicates that the customary dormer was not added in this case.
Interior
Most end-of-the-line depots had three sections: a waiting room, an office, and a freighthouse. The office stood in the center and had an attached bay window. If necessary, space in the back could be used for living quarters, and most companies included this feature because of the lack of adequate housing in these little boom towns. The interior of the FE&MV depot reflects this plan.
The interior of the Douglas passenger depot is divided into five spaces (see floor plan): the passenger waiting room, the office, the bathrooms, the freight handling area, and the room for freight storage. Interior walls consist of vertically applied car siding, approximately 4" nominal width with a kerfed central bead. The ceiling
is also covered with this same car siding. In keeping with the functional design, interior trim is at a minimum. There is no wood base, rather only a wood quarter-round at the bottom of the wall; a narrow chair rail at approximately 30" and a duplicate quarter-round at the wall-ceiling juncture. Window and door casings are flat and unadorned, with butt-jointed corners. The window sill does extend out
approximately 5/8" beyond the face of the casing.
. . .
Narrative Statement of Significance
Summary
In the summer of 1886, Douglas owed its existence to the coming of the railroad, and the city's continued life and economic stablity depended on this transportation network. When the end-of-the-line moved west to Casper in 1888, the little community nearly folded, but it continued to grow steadily as the area's resources found markets in the East, first cattle, then sheep, then coal, then oil, then electric power, each made marketable by the railroad and its ability to bring in and take out the materials and services necessary for economic success. Even Douglas's major yearly event, the Wyoming State Fair, owes its origins, to the C&NW, which donated the land for the fairgrounds in 1905. As the little-changed, physical representation of the most powerful force in the history of Converse County during the period 1886- 1960, the FE&MV/C&NW Depot is a significant representation of the locality's history."