36 info@entertainmentguidemn.

com The Entertainment Guide

All Aboard to Save Northelds Depot!
to Red Wing. Tis rail line
was called the Cannon Valley
Line of the Minnesota Cen-
tral Railroad Company, later
the Chicago Great Western.
Te depot in Northfeld that
serviced this line was located
a block away from the cur-
rent 1888 station.
Between 1888 and 1889 the
construction on the 1888
railway depot was com-
pleted where it is today and
it became the predominant
passenger depot in North-
feld. In 1969 passenger
trains stopped making stops
in Northfeld and all train
trafc began to be strictly
agricultural, and coal/oil carriers, which is all of the trafc found
traveling through town today. Te depot was retired for good on
October 22, 1981.
In 2008, a group of citizens learned that the 1888 depot was
scheduled for demolition. Te railroad had even ofered the
depot to the city fre department for frefghting practice. Save
the Northfeld Depot was formed in 2010 with the aim to salvage
and rejuvenate the 1888 depot and move the existing depot to a
new location just north along the tracks behind the Quarterback
Club Restaurant where it currently lies. Input at public meetings
held by the organization indicated that the depot complex should
be multi-use, including information for visitors with possible
exhibits of the history of the railroads as well as the work of local
artists.
Te current situation for the Save the Northfeld Depot project is
one of making plans for the move and fundraising. Te project
is moving forward with current fundraising at $119,000 raised
out of the total $293,000 needed to move and renovate the depot.
Rob Martin, co-chair of Save the Northfeld Depot, explains that
the recent MnDOT decision not to extend the deadline for grant
funds to clean the land for the city transit hub will not critically
afect the success of the depot portion of the vision. Te plans
were to co-locate the depot and the transit hub on the same lot;
the grant funds were for the transit hub and not the depot por-
tion.
Te completed project will be a grand way to fnally memorialize
the long history of the railroads in Northfeld and all the depots
which once served the town. Te preserved and renewed 1888
depot can then serve visitors and residents of the Northfeld
community once more.
For more information, go to northfelddepot.org. Donations
can be made online or sent to Save the Depot, Treasurer, 712 4th
Street E., Northfeld, Mn. 55057.
by Mitchell Rennie
Northfelds train depot that
currently sits just south of 3rd
Street West near the tracks
is the last existing depot of
Northfelds long railroad
history. Tis depot, known as
the 1888 Milwaukee depot,
was not the only one to serve
the city of Northfeld. In fact,
over the years as rail lines
came and went and diferent
railroad companies purchased
and sold rail lines, there were
a total of fve train depots in
town. Tese depots served
both the agricultural needs of
the surrounding countryside
and the personal transporta-
tion needs to cities around the region and the Midwest.
Te frst depot to be built in Northfeld was a small shed south of
3rd St. W. constructed in 1865 by the Milwaukee Railroad. Te
second Milwaukee depot (1870) and its associated grain elevator
were also located south of 3rd St. W. A third depot (1883) came
to town along with a new set of tracks that ran from Northfeld
and search depot.
Or go to
!
"
#
$
%
Mail your check to:
Clark Webster, Treasurer
712 4tb St. Last, Nortbelo, MN 55057
OR
go to www.northBelddepot.org
and click the donate button.
This Northeld Depot, also known as the Chicago, Milwaukee and
St. Paul Depot, dates back to 1888 and is the object of a Save the
Northeld Depot campaign. Circa 1890 photo courtesy of the St. Olaf
Archives.