
Steilacoom Depot - Steilacoom, Washington
N 47° 10.354 W 122° 36.112
10T E 530170 N 5224417
Built in 1914 and located in a pretty village on the side of Puget Sound, this station last saw passengers in 1971.
Waymark Code: WMJ1T1
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 09/09/2013
Views: 2
The depot was built to welcome the first train to arrive in Steilacoom in 1914. The architect of the station was Arthur P. Merrill, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a principle with Potter and Merrill of Tacoma, WA. See the
Steilacoom Historical Museum Quarterly for more details.
The original railroad between Portland and Seattle went through Lakewood and Tenino, where it was known as the Prairie Line, and was bypassed in favor of the water level route along the edge of Puget Sound. Ironically, passenger trains will, in a few short years, be routed back onto a portion of the rehabbed Prairie Line, joining Sound Transit's commuter trains already serving Lakewood. This will relieve the main line of some of the congestion at the single track Point Defiance tunnel, which will make BNSF happy. But it means that passengers will no longer enjoy the scenery of Puget Sound.