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 dwtaylor999
  
Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
Gender: Male
 |  | Grady, Arkansas: Old train station.
< on 3/20/2011 4:00 AM >
|  | | | I'm doing some contract work in south east Arkansas and came across this after work today. This is the old train station sans library in Grady Arkansas. Grady is a small town of about 500 people located south of Pine Bluff. It was your standard booming community in the first half of the 20th century, primarily agriculturally based. The decline has increased rapidly in the last 20 years, with the school closing down a few years ago.
It appears the town had tried to maintain the old station through the years, converting it to a town library at some point. It is currently just rotting, apparently used for storage for awhile, but the roof is beginning leak, badly in a couple of areas, and it won't be long before it's gone.
I haven't been able to determine exactly when it was built, but since the town was founded in 1907, the station would have likely been right around that time frame. The station is smallish, even for the era, consisting of two rooms, one for passengers/cargo, and the other for the station operator.
The original east/west tracks are long gone, though a track still runs through the town next to the highway, it hasn't stopped in Grady in decades.
The tracks originally where on this side of the building. you can see the old sliding cargo door. There was most likely a loading dock on the back of the station that has since dissappeared.
The passenger entrance.
The passenger/cargo area. You can see the sliding door that would have allowed access to the train on the left.
The ticket window, on the right as you enter.
The common chimney. Both this room and the station managers office would have been heated by their own cast iron stoves.
It looks like a bunch of old records where stored here, but most have now been water damaged.
This was the managers entrance on the east side. Note the old push button light switches on the right.
The station managers office and the remnants of its use as a library. Originally there was a door on the opening separating the two sections.
View of the passenger area through the ticket window.
This window would have given the manager a view of the tracks and train.
The old library sign.
An interesting little piece of Americana. A shame it's doomed.
[last edit 3/20/2011 4:01 AM by dwtaylor999 - edited 1 times]
Ruins, the fate of all cities. |
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VBJag
  
Location: Oklahoma
Gender: Male
| |  | Re: Grady, Arkansas: Old train station.
<Reply # 1 on 3/20/2011 6:05 PM >
| | | | That is one thing you will virtually find in every town out there is an old train station. Excellent as always!
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Price
Location: Houston,TX
Gender: Male
Urbex: Keeping record of things most people have forgotten.
| | Re: Grady, Arkansas: Old train station.
<Reply # 2 on 3/20/2011 7:42 PM >
| | | | congrats on FM at one month
love old historics like this!
i wish our places in houston had more history =[
same with galveston.
ima travel up to oakyland one day
“It still amazes me how many millions goes to discovering another star in the galaxies when, for all we know, we are still sitting on top of another undiscovered world beneath our feet.”
-Martin Dansky (1952) |
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Raticus
    
Moderator
Location: Tyler
Gender: Male
Ratus exploricus abandonae
| | Re: Grady, Arkansas: Old train station.
<Reply # 3 on 3/21/2011 1:41 AM >
| | | | Trains and railroad history are the other side of Raticus. I love trains and anything to do with them. You should see my back yard.  But anyway, it just kills me to see these old depot buildings being left to rot, or used as hay barns. All buildings have historic value in my opinion, but (impartially) few actually hold as much historic importance in most small towns as the railroad depot.
Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools speak because they have to say something. |
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dwtaylor999
Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
Gender: Male
| | Re: Grady, Arkansas: Old train station.
<Reply # 4 on 3/21/2011 2:11 AM >
| | | | I agree, without the railroad or a river, most of these towns would never have existed. Whole towns where moved just to be next to the railway. Others where doomed because the railroad passed them by. Most people don't realize how important a role the railways played.
Ruins, the fate of all cities. |
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VBJag
Location: Oklahoma
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Grady, Arkansas: Old train station.
<Reply # 5 on 3/21/2011 2:28 AM >
| | | | Posted by dwtaylor999
I agree, without the railroad or a river, most of these towns would never have existed. Whole towns where moved just to be next to the railway. Others where doomed because the railroad passed them by. Most people don't realize how important a role the railways played.
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And when the railroad went away the town went away. I found a town near where I lived, they had a mill, 2 hotels, 3 bars but when the new railroad bypassed the town it dried up and blew away.
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Imbroglio
Location: DFW
Gender: Male
The glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
| | | Re: Grady, Arkansas: Old train station.
<Reply # 6 on 3/21/2011 2:34 AM >
| | | | I had a few of those Punt, Pass & Kick Contest trophies myself back in the day!
http://www.noelkernsphotography.com |
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