Our History
History of the Iron Mountain Depot
The Iron Mountain Train Depot in was built in Poplar Bluff in 1910 by the St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, the first railroad to come through town. The St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern was succeeded by Missouri Pacific in 1917, and then by Union Pacific in 1982.
The first depot on the site was constructed in 1873, and replaced in 1890 with a structure that burned shortly after completion.
The railroads then repurposed boxcars for baggage and express facilities and operated a ticket office in the Crown Hotel until construction of the 1910 depot, a large building that served as both a passenger station and regional offices for the railroad.
Restoration of the Iron Mountain Depot
In 1998, the station was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Adding the station to the National Register was only the first step in the our community’s ongoing work to preserve the building and the tall, classical outdoor staircase that connects this below-street-level depot with Poplar Bluff’s Main Street in the old downtown.
Between 2001 and 2003, a citizens committee worked with Union Pacific to take ownership of the building. In June 2003, Union Pacific donated the depot to the Committee to Save and Restore the Historic Train Depot, which had organized as the Poplar Bluff Historic Train Depot Corporation. By May of 2007, the depot was listed by the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation on its list of the ten most endangered historic properties. Fortunately, funding the first phases of restoration have begun and the community has continued to restore the historic depot.
The Iron Mountain Depot Today
The exterior of this Colonial Revival-influenced station remains largely as it was when it was built over a century ago. This Iron Mountain Depot still functions to this day as an unmanned Amtrak Station. The Poplar Bluff Historic Depot Restoration Corporation, as well as the much of the surrounding community, work to see the building restored to a fully functioning modern train depot while still retaining all the charm and nostalgia that this historic building has to offer.