Gainesville Depot: Harvey House on the Texas Line

The brick depot in Gainesville was built in nineteen oh two for the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, at a time when the Santa Fe was the dominant rail connection between Texas and the broader national network. The station originally housed a Harvey House restaurant, part of the famous chain that Fred Harvey built alongside Santa Fe routes beginning in the eighteen seventies, the first systematic attempt to feed American rail travelers something worth eating. The Harvey House in Gainesville operated until nineteen thirty-one.

The station itself outlasted passenger service and was preserved by the community, which has held an annual Depot Day festival since nineteen eighty-six. The building stands today as one of the intact Santa Fe depot survivors in North Texas.