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| Southwestern Freight Depot in 1989 |
Few folks noticed the
massive St. Louis Southwestern Railway Freight Depot building back in 1989, when we shot this photo. The
impressively vast structure, cast in concrete, is still one of the most
distinctive buildings in St. Louis. The five-story depot was built in 1911 and
is 750 feet long. It has been abandoned for decades.
During
the 1980s, when we began visiting such places, “urban exploration” was still a
pretty obscure endeavor. Most folks weren’t armed with video cameras, and in
the case of the Southwestern Depot building, spray paint tagging hadn’t yet
arrived to this part of St. Louis. Now it has, and the interiors of the
building are a virtual gallery of graffiti art. But I must confess that I find
the tagging on the exterior rather depressing. Empty places can be more than
playgrounds. This building still has such dignity and grace, and I’m not ready
to see it treated like an urban corpse.
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| The Depot in 2010 |
The Depot was placed on the National Register in 2004.
Read the nomination form HERE.
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The building is even impressive from above....
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