Hoschton Depot (2013 photo) The Gainesville, Jefferson & Southern Railroad depot in Hoschton was built in 1883, eight years before the town received a municipal charter. Running north to Gainesville and south to Winder and Monroe, the GJ&S was constructed as a narrow-gauge line, a technology then thought appropriate for lightly populated regions. The rails through Hoschton were converted to standard gauge in 1913. The building served as a railroad depot until 1947, when GJ&S successor Georgia Midland abandoned the section of the line between Monroe and Belmont. (Belmont is on Hwy. 60, about 10 miles south of Gainesville.) In the mid-1990s, the Hoschton Women’s Civic Club began working to preserve the depot as part of the town's heritage. A nomination to the National Register of Historic Places was successful, and funding for repairs and rehabilitation was secured in subsequent years. It is now used as a community center. Hoschton, a town of 1,300 people, is in Jackson County in northeast Georgia. Above, the depot in 2005. The historic marker at the depot tells a familiar story about a new railroad's effect on a community.   RailGa.com. Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage. © Steve Storey Railroad History | The Depot List | Locomotives On Display | Odds & Ends | Sources & References | Home