Montrose Depot: Mission Revival on the Western Slope

When the Denver and Rio Grande Railway first reached Montrose in eighteen eighty-two, it called the stop the most important station west of Gunnison. By around nineteen twelve the railroad replaced its original depot with the brick Mission Revival building that still stands today, complete with terra cotta tile roof, arched arcades, and curvilinear parapets.

The depot served as the junction for lines branching south toward Ouray and east toward Gunnison and Crested Butte. Passengers and freight moved through here for decades until service wound down in the nineteen fifties. In nineteen seventy-two the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad donated the building to the city of Montrose. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now houses the Montrose County Historical Museum, its Mission Revival facade as intact today as when the last steam train pulled away.