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Overview

This Stick Style, wood-frame building replaced a boxcar that previously served as a makeshift depot for passengers of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) Railway in San Bernardino, CA. ATSF Depot #1 served the railway from 1886 until late in 1916.

Building History

A note in the San Francisco newspaper, the Daily Alta California, in 06/1886, reported that construction on the new depot was proceeding: "The California Southern Railroad have a very large force of laborers and graders at work on the San Bernardino yards. The new depot erecting at that place is a very large a commodious structure of frame, with brick foundations." (See "Railroad Notes," Daily Alta California, vol. 40, no. 13446, 06/20/1886, p. 1.)

By 04/1887, a through line connecting Los Angeles, San Bernardino and points east was complete. The Los Angeles Herald reported on 04/22/1887: "The rails of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad and the San Bernardino and Los Angeles Railway were connected yesterday at Azusa, and a through train will probably go over the line to-day. Mr. C.W. Smith, Vice-Presiden and General Manager of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad [sic], will leave for the east on the first through train. The new line will be a part of the California Central lines of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe system, and in a few days the through train from Los Angeles to Boston will go over this line through Pasadena and the other foothill towns to San Bernardino direct. The day for celebrating the opening of the road has not yet been fixed. A meeting should be held in Los Angeles and in San Bernardino to make arrangements for the celebration."(See "The Track Completed," Los Angeles Herald, vol. 27, no. 22, 04/22/1987, p. 1.)

In the words of a writer of the San Bernardino Daily Courier that the California Southern Railroad, a subsidiary of the ATSF, established in 1880, made San Bernardino "...a railroad center....," that "...has enhanced the value of city and valley property from one hundred to three hundred percent." The railroad's arrival connecting it to Los Angeles and other nearby places also transformed the city "...from a moribund village to a prosperous inland city...." (See "Branch Roads," San Bernardino Daily Courier, vol. 1, no. 56, 12/12/1886, p. 2.)

Building Notes

This first depot for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) Railway was a cross-gabled, wood-frame building with two-and-one-half stories.

Demolition

The ATSF San Bernardino Depot #1 was destroyed by fire, 11/16/1916; the fire broke out at 11 P.M.

PCAD id: 11475