"The Natchez Passenger Terminal is a locally valuable example of picturesque architectural styles popular at the end of the nineteenth century. When the station was converted into a restaurant in 1973, the terminal became a highly visible and popular example of adaptive reuse." - Library of Congress entry notes (https://www.loc.gov/item/ms0178/)
The train depot at 200 North Broadway St. was built in early 1910 as the passenger depot for the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (YMVR), a subsidiary of the Illinois Central Railroad that operated in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee from 1882 until 1945-46. The building is architecturally and historically significant as one of two surviving, historic railroad depots in Natchez and gains added significance from its architectural sophistication, exterior architectural integrity and its well-documented construction.
From the vantage point of today, the building's architectural style perhaps has more in common with the newly popular Craftsman Style than the Spanish Mission Style. Swift and Company of Chicago were the contractors, and they also built, in 1909, the city's other historic railroad depot for the Mississippi Central Railroad. Extensive research has yet to yield the identity of the architect.
In 2024, the City of Natchez completed a project, funded by a Community Heritage Preservation Grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, to rehabilitate the south end of the building as a new downtown visitor center. The north end is now being converted into a state-of-the-art event space, the River Room, by New Orleans hotelier - Warren Reuther and his convention and event space management team.
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