Illinois Central Railroad Seeks to sell Depot which was Pride and Joy in 1916
Announcement by the Illinois Central Railroad that it has applied to the Illinois Commerce Commission for permission to dispose of its railroad station on North Market Street in Marion has revived in the minds of many residents the story that the depot of unusual dimension for a city the size of Marion was located here by mistake.
In 1916 when the brick building took shape on the block long, brick-paved platform that stretched between North Market Street and North Van Buren Street to the west, Marion boosters pointed to it with pride. Its waiting room, which in those days was vast in comparison with the frame buildings that stood trackside in other communities, gave visitors the impression of being in a larger city.
Somehow there was circulated a story that somebody in the railroad’s employ had sent to Marion the plans and materials for a railroad station that were supposed to go to another larger city somewhere else. An adequate denial, if there was one, never caught up with the story. If it were true, no official of the line was ready to face the embarrassment of telling the citizens of Marion that the company considered the city entitled to anything less than a station in the proportions that the one built here possessed.
After all, when the I.C. expended its $50,000 for construction of the station here, there were six passenger trains arriving and departing over the Illinois Central each day.
Four of the trains ran between Marion and Paducah. The others operated between Marion and St. Louis, one leaving Marion early in the morning and returning at 9:05 P.M. as another train number. The trains passing through Marion about 8 and 11:30 A.M. and 12:30 and 6:30 P.M. linked Paducah with the main lines to St. Louis and Chicago by making connections at Carbondale.
When the new brick station was erected, the old frame building it replaced was moved one block west where it was occupied for some time by the section foreman. In 1921 it was moved to a location on North Monroe Street, and a new track was laid over the site to join with the main tracks near the junction with the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad.
The move was part of an expansion of the railroad yards. Other improvements included the removal of the livestock pens located between the main tracks and the side tracks near the old Reinhardt-Smith Wholesale Grocer Co. that occupied the present sit of N.O. Nelson Co. Several small shacks which had been occupied along the tracks by immigrant laborers were torn down and a beer storage house just east of the stock pens on Van Buren Street was moved across the street from the railroad property.
“These improvements, according to the Daily Republican of the day, “tend to clear the yards near the station and put all buildings further west where they can be reached by streets now handling less traffic than those nearer the depot. Much more room will be afforded for driveways between the track, which not only save time, but lessens the possibility of accidents by crowded freight yards.”
The railway station and its roofed platform that ran the length of the building were frequently as crowded with passengers as the surrounding yards were crowded with freight. Such occasion as the Williamson County Fair in September 1917 resulted in the station being jammed with visitors, in addition to such regular passengers as “drummers” who used the trains for their commercial traveling and those who depended upon trains for all their travels outside the county. To accommodate visitors coming to the fair that year the railroad ran an eight coach special train to Marion from Brookport, Illinois. Another special train operated between Marion and Carterville. These were in addition to the six regular trains.
The biggest crowds at the railway station, however, were probably those which gathered during World War I on the occasions when men drafted for military service left for training camps. As the draftees piled aboard the coaches, hundreds of relatives and friends swarmed the station to see them off. The Marion band turned out and the splendid new railway station resounded with patriotic music as the trains pulled out.
Some remember best the huge crowd on Sunday following the 1921 winning of the State Basketball Tournament by Marion’s “Fighting Five”. The train pulled in with the team perched on the engine.
But in the late twenties, the encroachment of the automobile began to be felt by the railroad industry and the Illinois Central began making efforts to re-trench. By 1933, the railroad had won permission to discontinue running its trains on Sunday and the reduction of passenger service continued through the depression years until there was none.
Hauling of freight remained an important function of the road and the railway station was used as a freight office and an office for the express company.
In recent years the east part of the building which was once reserved for passengers has been occupied as a grocery store which recently closed. Now the railroad company has asked permission to dispose of the building, “by sale, demolition or removal.”
See also, a History of the Illinois Central in Marion
Sam’s Notes: The “drummers” term mentioned in the article is a reference to traveling salesmen out to drum up business. Also, just as crowds gathered to see their local men leave to war, they also gathered to see them return. Unfortunately, a number of them arrived in coffins as freight at this depot, as was the case with my uncle who died in the Philippine Islands at Leyte and was returned after WWII. Also, though Butler used the year 1916 as a start date for the depot it was actually constructed in 1915.
(Glimpses at Life, Homer Butler, February 27, 1971)