Macon Terminal Station


View down Macon's Cherry Street to Terminal Station

Macon's 1916 Terminal Station, at the foot of Cherry Street downtown, is Georgia's grandest surviving railroad station. It was designed in the Beaux Arts style by architect Alfred Fellheimer (1875-1959), who with his partners also designed stations in Cincinnati, Buffalo, and other cities.

In 1926-27, the station handled as many as a hundred arrivals/departures each day, primarily trains of the Central of Georgia , Southern Railway, and Georgia Southern & Florida. Passengers accessed the train platforms by way of a tunnel under the tracks.

After closing in 1975, the building stood unused several years until it was purchased by Georgia Power Company in 1982 and used as its local offices in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2002, the City of Macon received one million dollars in TEA funds to purchase the building from Georgia Power and convert it to a retail, office, and multi-modal transportation center.

Main entrance to Macon's Terminal Station

Four stone eagles stand watch over the station's main entrance.

Macon Terminal Station with WWI-era automobiles in front.

Did the postcard artist know that automobiles would eventually cause the station to close it doors?

Macon Terminal Station at night

A postcard view of the massive station at night.

Old Southern Railway depot in Macon

Before Terminal Station was built, Southern Railway passengers used this station. It stood at Ocmulgee Street and Fifth Street (now Riverside Drive and MLK, Jr. Blvd.) On the left side of the photo can be seen the trestle that took Central of Georgia trains over the Southern's tracks and the street. Southern's freight depot was a block north, between the street and the river.

 


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

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