The Liberty Train Depot

LIBERTY, November 9, 2007 - Liberty has one of the largest time capsules I’ve ever seen in the train Depot building adjacent to the railroad tracks between Main and Travis Streets in Downtown Liberty.

The east end of the building was devoted to passenger train service and the west end of the building, with a floor about 3-1/2 feet above street level, was devoted to freight. This building was built before the era of freight being delivered by truck. Commodities purchased by retailers in Liberty, such as Tractors, New Cars, Livestock Feed and much more, was shipped to Liberty by rail and unloaded at the Depot.

Natives of Liberty still living here who are older than about 55 years can remember when this building was in use for passenger train service. Some merchants who owned and operated stores on Main Street lived in Houston and commuted to Liberty on the train to work each day. This included Mr. Kay who ran the Grand Leader (clothing store) and Mr. Waldman who ran the Fair Store (also a clothing store). These stores were located where JAX’S Hamburgers is today and extended south to where the vacant variety store is today.

This building is not only a visual and special reminder of railroad life decades ago, it’s floor plan is a reminder of a time when two separate societies, one black and one white, lived in this place.

It is the floor plan of the east end of the building where the passenger rail service was operated that documents just how separated society was. Its’ layout today is original and its’ design is no afterthought. This building was designed, built and functioned well during the time of segregation.

This room above was the nerve center of the Depot. The large bay window is in the north wall of the Depot looking out onto the loading platform. From this vantage point at the counter below the windowsills, the Train Master could look west and east along the platform and down the track to announce the arrival and departure of trains. Old timers recall a telegraph key located on the counter that the Train Master used to communicate with points further up and down the track from Liberty. This room is located near the center of the east end of the building.

You will notice two identical ticket counters in the far right and far left side of the room. The ticket clerks would stand at these counters and sell tickets to the passengers. The one on the right is where white people walked up and bought a ticket and opens into the white waiting area for the trains. White people entered the Depot from the east end facing Main Street, which resembled a large covered porch now enclosed.

The ticket counter on the left was for black people. It opened into a much smaller waiting room equipped with it’s own toilet facilities. Black people entered the Depot through a door in the south wall of the Depot, which faces onto what was then US 90, which is now Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. and was once Commerce Street.

The two waiting areas had separate entrances and had separated exits onto the loading platform. With this design the races never had to mix or cross paths while using the building and boarding the trains.

This building is a historical reminder of life the way it was once lived and has been largely forgotten over the decades except in television documentaries about that time. It documents the life of the railroad as well as segregation and is a reminder of the struggle of the civil rights movement. It is truly a piece of history.