Athens


Two of Athens' depots survive. Shown here is the 1909 Southern Railway passenger station on Hoyt Street. Used for a time in the 1970s and 1980s as a restaurant and retail complex, it is currently a senior citizens center.

Athens former Southern Railway depot. View of front entrance.

Athens former Seaboard depot. View from streetside.

Also still standing is the 1891 Georgia, Carolina & Northern (later Seaboard Air Line Railway) depot (above) on Ware Street at College Avenue north of downtown. It is still in railroad use, but only by CSX train crews. The image below shows the building in its passenger service days.

Old postcard view of Athens Seaboard depot. View from trackside.

The Georgia Railroad depot, a combination freight and passenger station built in the 1880s on the east side of downtown, was demolished in the 1980s or early 1990s. The depot and the railroad's terminal yard were in the block now bounded by E. Broad, Willow, and Foundry streets (between the North Oconee River and the Classic Center).

Up the hill towards downtown was the Central of Georgia freight depot, also now gone. It sat just east of the intersection of Foundry Street and East Washington Street. The Central's passenger depot sat in a triangle formed by Mitchell Street and the railroad (between UGA's North Parking Deck and the Hodgson Oil Building).

The former Georgia Railroad terminal yard is now the site of the city's new multimodal transportation center.

 


Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage. Copyright, Steve Storey.

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