Alvin Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Passenger Depot - Alvin, TX - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
Alvin Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Passenger Depot, Alvin, Brazoria County, Texas

Description

Located on the northeast quadrant of the intersection of Depot Centre Boulevard and Gordon Street in the city of Alvin, Texas, the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe (GC&SF) Railway Passenger Depot is a good example of a “county seat” passenger depot property subtype identified in the Multiple Property Submission form “Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Depots of Texas, 1873-1965.” The GC&SF Depot is a one-story building constructed of stucco-covered masonry walls. The depot’s distinguishing feature is its gabled roof with deep eaves, rafter tails, parapets and a projecting five-sided bay. The parapets are decorated with geometric designs that are associated with the American Arts and Crafts movement. The GC&SF Depot is the only rail-related building in Alvin and it represents a tangible link to an era when the passenger depot served as the community’s principal gateway to the outside world and reflected the community’s importance to the railroad. The depot retains a high degree of integrity, the exterior has been substantially restored to its original appearance and the interior has been sensitively rehabilitated for use as local governmental offices, currently used by the Alvin Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Statement of Significance

The Alvin GC&SF Railway Passenger Depot was built in 1910 to replace an earlier combination depot, and is the oldest rail-related building that reflects early 20th-century passenger, freight, and parcel service in Alvin, Texas. The building is significant at the local level under Criterion A, in the area of Transportation as a physical reminder of a time in Texas’ history when railroads played a key role in the economy and the vitality of the state and the communities such as Alvin. The building is also nominated under Criterion C in the area of Architecture as an excellent example of a small depot that reflects the influence of the American Arts and Crafts movement and features a plan that met the functional requirements of Jim Crow era state laws that mandated racially segregated waiting rooms in train stations. The period of significance is 1910-1967, when the depot served its original function until the AT&SF Railway discontinued passenger service between Houston and Galveston in 1967. This period extends beyond the cutoff date of the “Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Depots of Texas, 1873-1965” multiple property submission, reflecting the two years that the AT&SF continued passenger service following the assimilation of the GC&SF into the parent company. A January 21, 1910 article in The Alvin Sun declared that work on a new $30,000 passenger depot would begin soon. The new depot, the article ran, would be constructed of brick and stucco and would be “one of the handsomest passenger stations along the lines of the Santa Fe in the state.” Construction began on March 21, 1910. The Sun described the proposed building and site:

"The new station will be a stucco building, 100x26 feet, with a 4-foot shed all around the building. The ticket office will be in the center of the building and the baggage room in the east end. The waiting room for whites will be on the west side of the ticket office and the colored people’s waiting room on the east side…Between the new building and Gordon street, the grounds will be filled in, laid off by a landscape gardener, and beautiful flowers and schubbery [sic] planted, and the entire space made into a beautiful park, which will be a great attraction to the hundreds of visitors and prospectors who visit Alvin at all seasons of the years."

On June 24, 1910, the newspaper reported that interior was nearly complete and on July 22 that a “large force” of workers were busy relocating tracks, laying out sidewalks and performing other site work. Finally, on October 25, 1910, the depot opened to the public. The first train, Number 4, arrived at 4:55 p.m. from Galveston.

Charles L. Ryals was the general contractor for the depot. He is listed in the 1911 Galveston city directory as a carpenter, contractor and builder, having offices in the Builders’ Exchange Building at 216 Tremont Street in Galveston. Although Ryals is known to have built other structures for the GC&SF, there is insufficient information to evaluate his significance to the railroad

Summary

The 1910 Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Passenger Depot, provided passenger rail service to Alvin for nearly sixty years, and help shape the social, political, and economic history of the town. The depot typifies standard Santa Fe passenger depot architectural design for the period with a familiar depot form with Arts and Crafts details. A 20xx rehabilitation project restored the exterior to its original appearance, preserving its character and functionality, and the building now houses office space. The depot is nominated at the local level under Criterion A in the area of Transportation for its role in transporting passengers through Alvin for more than half a century. It is also significant under Criterion C in the area of Architecture as an excellent local example of an early 20th-century railroad depot reflecting popular American design, and retaining a plan that serves as a reminder of racial segregation during the Jim Crow era.

Street address: 200 Depot Centre Blvd Alvin, TX USA 77511 County / Borough / Parish: Brazoria Year listed: 2019 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Transportation, Architecture Periods of significance: 1910-1967 Historic function: Transportation / rail-related - passenger depot Current function: Government (Vacant) Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and brief account of your visit. Include any additional observations or information that you may have, particularly about the current condition of the site. Additional photos are highly encouraged, but not mandatory.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   06/04/2016 WalksfarTX visited it