Union Depot

Historian Norene Roberts writes:

The Union Depot was built by the Union Depot Street Railway and Transfer Co. in 1887. When built, it was the finest depot in Minnesota. It was 106'x68' with a platform extending around the entire building. The main entrance was on Water St. The first story was faced in red sandstone, and the roof was steeply pitched slate. It had a 75' shingled tower at the northwest corner. The company rented the depot to all three Stillwater railroads: the St. Paul & Duluth, the Omaha, and the Milwaukee Roads.

L.W. Eldred, an Ohio native, was the contractor who built the building. Eldred studied architecture as a young man and also built Stillwater's opera house. The depot cost $50,000, an enormous sum in 1887. It is said that all the building material was shipped from the east and Eldred put the marked pieces together like a giant jig-saw puzzle.

The depot closed in 1854 and the build sold to Capacitor, Inc., makers of capacitors for radios and televisions. The building was razed in 1960.^[1]

Hooley's market was built on the site in 1960, and demolished in 1993. The Water Street Inn used the site for a patio prior to building a hotel addition on the site in 2019. The hotel's northwest tower is in the location of the depot's original tower.