About this property
The L & N Railroad Depot in the Hopkinsville Commercial Historic District of Hopkinsville, Kentucky is a historic railroad station on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in 1892. The year 1832 saw the first of many attempts to woo a railroad to Hopkinsville. This first attempt was to connect Hopkinsville to Eddyville, Kentucky. In 1868 Hopkinsville finally obtained a railroad station, operated by the Evansville, Henderson, & Nashville Railroad. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad acquired the railroad in 1879. The Hopkinsville depot is a single-story frame building with a slate roof. It has six rooms: a Ladies Waiting room (the room closest to the street), a General Waiting Room, a Colored Waiting Room, a baggage room (the furthest room from the street), a ticket office (the only room which connected to all three waiting rooms), and a ladies' restroom. Immediately outsides were warehouses for freight, usually tobacco. Its last long-distance train was the Louisville and Nashville's Georgian, last operating in 1968. During its operating years, the Hopkinsville depot was a popular layover spot for those traveling by train. It was the only Louisville & Nashville station between Evansville, Indiana and Nashville, Tennessee where it was legal to drink alcohol. Hopkinsville got the nickname "Hop town" due to train passengers asking the conductors when they would arrive at Hopkinsville, so they could "hop off and get a drink". The Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 1, 1975. It is owned by the City of Hopkinsville and was occupied by the Pennyroyal Arts Council until 2019. That year the council moved out after a fire in an exterior wall and the building was still vacant as of January 2023. The depot's future was uncertain as it requires an estimated $2M USD in structural repairs and those costs are in competition with other city funding priorities. CSX, which bought out the Louisville & Nashville, still run freight trains on the tracks next to the depot.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot
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Questions about this property
When was Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot listed on the National Register?
Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 31, 1975.
What type of historic resource is Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot?
Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot?
The period of significance for Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot is recorded as the early_republic era, specifically around 1832.
Can I research the history near Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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