Type Construction: Brick, Tile Roof
Rail Line: Atchison , Topeka and Santa Fe
Condition: Excellent – Refurbished with Chamber of Commerce inside. Interior is not historically accurate, but in the same style. The exterior is restored and appears largely unchanged from the original in style.
The link to the history page is excellent. Especially the part about mild winters and cool summers. And the quickest way to the mines in the San Juan Mountains. (Those were a special kind of misery.)
A humorous story from the history link:
“The black and white picture shows such a crowd shortly after the depot was built in 1907. If only this old depot could talk! There was even a marriage held here. A young couple was to be married on a certain date, and they requested a minister from Las Animas Colorado to do the honors at a local church. The night before the wedding, high water washed out the tracks and he was stalled at La Junta 10 miles away. The couple wondered if the wedding could be held by telegraph? A lawyer in La Junta could see no problem, so the couple were wed in the Rocky Ford depot!”
From
(
visit link)
1907 - The present depot was constructed by J.B. Betts, probably using brick from Fred Cheek's Brick Kilns, commencing December 2, 1906, and occupied March 26, 1907. The construction was quite rapid, and the Venetian tile roof with Moorish gable work gave an attractive Spanish appearance to the handsome brick building. The Rocky Ford Enterprise describes the interior:
"The hard stucco walls are painted in solid but harmonious tints and the woodwork of hard pine stained in oak. The seating is the best make of station furniture. The electric lights, the steam heating, and the lavatory fittings are all of modern design and devise--the steam heating being a particularly compact and perfect piece of mechanism. The building is divided(by the intervening ticket office), into two commodious waiting rooms, and a connecting corridor, and the (water) closets areavailable in both men's (west) and women's (east) waiting rooms."
Also in 1907, the Wells Fargo Company (later known as the Railway Express Co-REA) built the red brick building just west ofthe depot facing west on to 9th Street, replacing a rather unsightly structure whose demise was readily received by the community. The agent was James H. Butterfield.