Arcadia Depot
Southern Pacific Lines
Freight Station Building
Built about 1893 in Arcadia, California
Moved to Travel Town in 1955
A.55.02.02
The Southern Pacific Arcadia Freight Depot was built about 1893, immediately after the Southern Pacific purchased a local narrow-gauge line called the San Gabriel Valley Rapid Transit Railroad that had been built from L.A. to the real estate “boom town” of Monrovia. Southern Pacific rebuilt the track to standard gauge and extended the line through Arcadia to Duarte. The depot in Arcadia was built in accordance with the S.P.’s standard freight depot design at 35 Santa Clara Street (just east of First Street) very near the Santa Fe Railway’s passenger depot and the Pacific Electric’s “Red Car” station. The freight depot was used as a transfer point for merchandise, farm equipment and other packages being shipped by rail to and from other points on the Southern Pacific system.
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More Interesting Information:
S.P. closed the freight depot in 1941 when it abandoned the unprofitable branch line. The depot building was transported to the W. Parker Lyon’s popular Pony Express Museum, located near the Santa Anita Race Track. Lyon’s museum closed in 1955 and the building was then acquired by the City of Los Angeles for Travel Town. The depot building was permanently installed at its current location as part of a 1963 redevelopment project at Travel Town, needed to accommodate construction of the 134 Ventura Freeway.
