The owner of this Big Four railroad depot, built in 1917 in Mattoon, Ill., wants to tear it down.

UPDATE: The depot was demolished on April 9, 2004.

Dear Preservation 911,

Please help save our historic railroad depot. It was built in 1917 in Mattoon, Ill., to serve the Big Four Railroad (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis) The depot continued to serve the New York Central Railroad when it took over the Big Four in 1929. It has great historical significance to the community as it is the only building left on the railroad that gave the town its name.

Mattoon was founded in 1855 when the Terre Haute and Alton Railroad (later known as the Big Four) and the Illinois Central Railroad intersected in Coles County, Ill. The town was named after a partner of the firm responsible for building the TH & A, William B. Mattoon.

Both railroads had maintenance shops and depots in town and employed the majority of the community. The shop buildings have long been torn down, but the depots remain. The IC depot, still used as an unmanned Amtrak station, is being restored after years of neglect. The Big Four depot, however, slipped into private ownership after the New York Central discontinued passenger service in 1964. The building has not been maintained since 1985, when the current owner took it over. Now the owner feels the building can no longer be profitable to him so he is planning to tear it down to make way for a new office building and expanded parking lot. We feel the building should be restored and preserved as a piece of Mattoon history.

Mattoon is unique since we have two depots, on two different railroads, built at the same time, of different architecture, right next to each other. Where else is there such an occurrence? Mattoon has already lost so much of its past due to neglect, demolition, and other questionable conceptions of "progress." Members of the city government and even members of the historical society don't seem to have the right attitude towards the preservation of the treasures left to us by our ancestors.

Please visit our Web site for additional information.

Sincerely,

Chris Rankin and Terry Barnes
Mattoon, Ill.

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