Shawnee Santa Fe Depot

There are at least twenty-five railroad depots in Oklahoma on the National Register of Historic Places. The Santa Fe Depot is easily the most architecturally impressive. An impressive Richardsonian Romanesque castle , it seems oddly out of place on the prairie. It was built in 1902-03 and features a steeply gabled roof, a Romanesque colonnade, and an impressive tower with crenelations. The interior features include a high vaulted ceiling and impressive wooodwork. Other Santa Fe depots were built in this style across the Southwest, but this is the single surviving example. In the early 1970s it was in danger of being razed and replaced by a much smaller building. It was saved by the Pottawatomie County Historical Society, who bought it from the railroad, renovated it and moved the county historical museum into it.

The museum itself is fairly typical of county historical museums. Collections include artifacts from early settlement of the county, railroad memorabilia, artifacts and manuscripts from the Sac and Fox, and Shawnee tribes, including a leather wedding dress and a translation of the four Gospels into the Shawnee language. Also on the grounds is the Beard Cabin, the first building built in the county after the 1891 land run. The cabin long stood in its original location in nearby Woodland park until it was damaged in a wind storm in 1999, when it was moved to the depot. The Beard Cabin, in its original location, has its own listing on the National Register of Historical Places.

The depot is located at 614 E. Main Street, in Shawnee. It is open 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Tuesday through Friday, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM Saturday and Sunday. It is closed Mondays and holidays. There is a suggested donation of $2.00 for adults and $1.00 for children and students.

Santa Fe Depot website.

Image from Wikipedia, originally uploaded by Pagansmurf