Nostalgia & History > Depot Friday: Just a shell, now

The old Florence depot in this 'current' photo is actually a secondary subject. I've forgotten why the Southwest Chief is running so late in this shot from almost seven years ago. But it's rolling past the badly deteriorating shell of the old Santa Fe depot, which was built in 1904. This ancient building was slated for demolition, but that was put on hold with a final disposition still unknown to me. There is a lot of Nostalgia in the intertwining History between Florence, Kansas & the Santa Fe. Read on:

As a RR town Florence is also just a shell of its former self. Over a century ago Florence was a Santa Fe chain-gang (crew) terminal. I'll leave the actual details to the scholars, but I believe this was in the era before Middle Division HQ was move from Nickerson back to Newton, which occurred in 1897. For hungry passengers desiring quality meal service Florence got Santa Fe's second Harvey House, but got the first-ever Harvey Hotel. This one-in-the-same structure was the former 'Clifton House' and was acquired by Fred Harvey in 1878. A cut-down version of the building still exists. Years ago it was moved to 3rd & Marion Sts, and has been nicely refurbished as the Harvey House Museum.

Florence once had a small yard and a modest roundhouse facility, traces of which can be seen in the Google Maps satellite view. Two branch lines originated here, both now long gone. One line went south through Burns & De Graff down to El Dorado, KS and points further south. Another branch ran west all the way out to Ellinwood. This branch first had to leave town in an eastward direction. It immediately turned north to follow the Cottonwood River, which is also very prominent in early Santa Fe history. Both railroad and river turned northwest toward Marion, KS. The Cottonwood then found its headwaters NW of Marion and the tracks found a more westerly direction, passing through Hillsboro, McPherson & Lyons to reach Ellinwood. Right-of-way traces of both branches can still be found if you know where to look.

Come to think of it, there's a whole trainload of Santa Fe Nostalgia & History around the Land of OZ! If one just knows where to look...

1. AMTK 68 is eastbound with a very tardy train #4 at Florence, KS on December 15, 2011.

Thanks for following along!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/18 11:10 by santafe199.

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Nice shot and info, Lance!  Robert Walz's book published by the SFRH&MS," The Heart of the Santa Fe:The Middle Division" has a lot of good info on Santa Fe's branch lines and Harvey Houses.

Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX

texchief1 Wrote: > ... Robert Walz's book  ...  "The Heart of the Santa Fe: The Middle Division" ...

I have the pleasure of seeing Bob once a month at the KC Roundtable dinners. And I was on the phone with him earlier, nailing down some of the info I mentioned above. A dedicated Santa Fe fan, Bob is a great source of all sorts of facts 'n figures.

Lance

(PS: rumor has it I have a picture or 2 in his book ... ;^)