Click image to enlarge. Built in 1872, the graceful Vicksburg and Brunswick Depot, Alabama's finest Reconstruction-era depot is representative of the functional yet attractive depot structures built during the heyday of the American railway industry. With its large and unusual windows--arched on the exterior but square and shuttered on the interior--and twelve-inch-thick walls, the building is both imposing and sturdy. Operated by different rail road companies over the years, the depot changed hands several times and in 1948 was purchased by the Eufaula Hardware Company for use as a warehouse.
The reclamation of historic railway depots has been accomplished in numerous Southern cities. Designed and built for use by large numbers of people, these fine old buildings have found new lives as restaurants, boutiques, senior citizens' centers, flea market facilities, and, in one case, as headquarters for a local chamber of commerce. The First United Methodist Church, however, owner of the Vicksburg and Brunswick Depot, is undecided about whether to tear the building down and build a parking lot or renovate the depot as a recreation complex for children. Structurally the building, now 125 years old, is in good shape.
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