Joplin Union Depot: The Junction That Made a Boomtown Move

The Joplin Union Depot opened in nineteen eleven at the intersection of the Kansas City Southern and Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroads, giving Joplin a consolidated passenger terminal at a moment when the city was one of the wealthiest small cities in America. Joplin had grown on lead and zinc, metals pulled from the Tri-State Mining District beneath the Ozark foothills, and the railroads were why that wealth had somewhere to go. The depot's Beaux-Arts brick exterior was designed by the Kansas City architect Louis Curtiss.

At its peak it served dozens of daily trains. Route Sixty-Six was designated in nineteen twenty-six and ran through Joplin, reinforcing the city's position as a hub connecting the Midwest to the Southwest. The depot closed to passenger service in nineteen sixty-nine, when the last train, the Southern Belle, pulled out, and the building spent decades unused before preservation efforts stabilized it.