BLoomington Depots

[Pete Pedigo]

This is a March 16, 1967 aerial photo of the location where the last Monon Depot was located in downtown Bloomington, In.   The bank that bought the lot has a drive through bank on the property in this photo, and automobiles are parked on the footprint of where the Limestone Depot once sat.    This would indicate that the Depot was torn down prior to this date.  The freight depot on the left, or West, side of the tracks has already been replaced with a  parking lot also.  This photo is from the City of Bloomington and is in a series of dozens of photos taken the same day and all marked March 16 1967.
Pete

[John Butler]

Nice photo Pete that helps nail down the exact date of the demolition.  It is kind of crazy that such a landmark would be lost with so little fanfare, but it was.  There is apparently no news in the papers about the demolition.  A few articles about the Grimes lane depot and progress but not much about memories.

[John Stigall]

Wow the old tracks to the roundhouse are there across 5th/Kirkwood to the west of the main.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

[Victor Sauerheber]

After looking at the picture, was there a track behind the depot at one time? Vic

[Joe Land]

Vic, yes there was a track behind the depot at one time. It shows on the attached map.

[Victor Sauerheber]

Thanks Joe I guess I can still catch a thing or two from these pictures. Vic

[John Stigall]

Wow the old tracks to the roundhouse are there across 5th/Kirkwood to the west of the main.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

Oh it was a pair of engine houses and a turntable. Anyone ever seen pictures?

[George Carpenter (G3)]

The only view that I have ever seen is from the top of the old Monroe County courthouse looking west toward the engine houses. The view is blocked by the buildings on the west side of the square, but part of a locomotive is visible. There is also an oblique angle of the original depot in the same panoramic photo of all sides of the Bloomington Square. The reproduction of this photo is in the maps and reference section of the Monroe County Library. Pete and I discovered it by accident several years ago when researching microfiche. Regarding the switch track on the east side of the original depot, there I a photograph taken across 5th St. from the top floor of the building (hotel-later Holden's Music) looking south toward the depot. If you look closely, there are freight cars visible on the east side spur. The photo also shows lots of people on the platform boarding or departing a south bound passenger train. Circa 1910. If time permits I will search the photo Listserv for these photos.
G3



---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=39.352915,-85.972514

[George Carpenter (G3)]

I found the photo I described last night. If you look to the far left of the image you can see a box car on the switch track. If I am correct the depot in the picture was the second structure built at this location. For those of you from Bloomington, if you look in the far upper right hand corner of the photo, you can see the top floors of the old "Central School" now the location of the hotel at the convention center.
G3

[Pete Pedigo]

I am sure you meant upper Left.  This is a telling photo that the Sanborn maps are always correct.

[George Carpenter (G3)]

Pete, you are correct. I did mean upper left. In the upper right is the gas plant which is there to this day.

[Victor Sauerheber]

Thanks for the post George, Nice work, Vic

[David Longest]

Vic, yes there was a track behind the depot at one time. It shows on the attached map.

Which was tighter, the tracks through downtown Bloom'ton or in New Albany on Market St., by Tommy Lancaster's restaurant?

[Ron Marquardt]

Tommy Lancaster's was a lot tighter than Bloomington, but Middle Salt Creek bridge at Guthrie and Mill Creek bridge at Wallace Jtc. were tighter than Tommy Lancaster's, and on occasion the parking lot across from the Royal Oaks roadhouse in Bloomington was tighter than the bridges.  / Ron

[Geof Burns]

I can also see on the Sandborn map that there was at one time a run-through depot at that location.