Anchored by the showcase Northern Pacific Depot, the finest ever built by the railroad, the Livingston Commercial District spreads out from it to the south, west and east. Built to draw tourists to the railway and to Livingston, the Northern Pacific (NP) spared no expense when building this station.
Italianate in style, the station was built to impress all who passed through. Three stories in height, the station was designed to resemble a Palladian villa, with curved colonnades and copious amounts of terra cotta. The designers of the station were Reed and Stem of St. Paul, Minnesota who, while the Livingston station was under construction, were designing Grand Central Station in New York City.
After the NP suspended passenger operations, the station was used by AMTRAK until 1979. Burlington Northern, successor to the NP, briefly used it for offices until donating it to the City of Livingston in 1985. Two years later, in the summer of 1987, it opened as a museum, community centre and events centre operated by the Livingston Depot Foundation, and is now known as
Depot Center.
The museum fills the majority of the ground floor of the museum, its emphasis being on the history of the railway vis a vis Livingston. This is understandable as Livingston was first and foremost a railway town, possessing large Northern Pacific yards, shops and this building, Northern Pacific's flagship railway station. The exhibits are varied and extensive telling the story of Livingston's part in the building and operation of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
Northern Pacific Depot
This latter building [the Northern Pacific Depot] consists of a large, three-story office and waiting room structure and two, lower wings containing the baggage room and a cafe, all connected by a curved colonnade. The composition recalls a Palladian villa. Terra cotta ornamentation is richly plastic, especially in the colonnade pediments, where N.P. "monads" are treated as cartouches. The Depot is the most prominent landmark in the city because of its location, size, and design quality.
The Northern Pacific's interest in Livingston, its Yellowstone Division headquarters and departure point for Park tourists, is evinced by construction of the monumental Passenger Depot between 1901 and 1902. To design it, the company employed Reed and Stem of St. Paul, an architectural firm which specialized in railway stations. While Livingston's Depot was under construction, Reed and Stem, with Warren and Wetmore, undertook the design for Grand Central Station, New York City. Other Reed and Stem commissions include depots or stations in Tacoma, Missoula, Bismark, Troy, and Scarsdale. The Livingston Depot is an architectural work of national significance for both the quality of its design and as a relic of the great age of American railroading, Burlington Northern maintains offices in the building today.
From the NRHP Nomination Form