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Comments/Directions:
The GC&SFe built this passenger station in 1900. (Having begun in Galveston, TX in 1873, the AT&SFe Company built a new union depot in Galveston that would also house the offices of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe. - see Texas attraction "Galveston Railroad Museum.") In those years, it was already a subsidiary of the AT&SFe, having merged in 1886 by agreement with AT&Sf, which was their way to break into Texas railroad baron Jay Gould's stronghold. In 1965 the remaining GC&SF property was transferred to the Santa Fe and ultimately it was absorbed into the BNSF. In 1938 the depot was renovated and modernized by the Fort Worth Union Passenger Station and the Santa Fe Railroad. The station served several lines until 1960, when the Santa Fe became the sole railroad using the facility, after which the building was called the Santa Fe Depot. Amtrak operated between 1973 and 1995. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The sharply contrasting red and white brick and stone gives a stunning effect, especially the band of red/white brick in a zig-zag pattern of the neoclassical Beaux Arts Architectural Style that separates the 2 floors. Also, alternating bands of red brick separated by single courses of white brick surround the 1st floor. The second level is accented with white cast stone window and doorway arches and cornice, while the corners are alternate horizontal white stone/red brick in a unique quoining technique. The original stained glass windows, barrel-vaulted ceilings, and marble floors emanate style and grace. Purchased in 1999, it is a private entertaining/wedding venue.
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