Nostalgia & History > Depot Friday: Syracuse, KS

This might be a semi-rare image of the Santa Fe depot in Syracuse, Kansas. I’ve not seen any images this good...

1. AT&SF depot in Syracuse, KS circa 1969.
B/W image taken by the late CH “Dick” Humphreys, from the Robert D Walz collection.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199
Remembering the late Dick Humphreys, good friend to Art Gibson

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This structure incorporated not only the depot but also the Fred Harvey hotel and eating house The Sequoyah.  It opened in July 1908, replacing an earlier frame hotel/eating house.  The Kansas State Historical Society has an interesting before-and-after photo of the two structures:

https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/444332/page/1

They have some other nifty photos of the structure including this one:

https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/439595/page/2

The University of Arizona Library collection has some company photos including interiors:

http://harvey.library.arizona.edu/finding_aid/5ks/11/welcome.html

An article in the August 8, 1908 Albuquerque Journal quoted a formal announcement from Santa Fe's passenger department that said, among other things, "The Sequoyah Hotel at Syracuse, Kan. (named for the Cherokee chief Se-Quo-Yah), will be opened for business on or about July 15, 1908...while the hotel is not large, it is very complete.  There are sixteen guest rooms, all with telephone and electric lights, also running hot and cold water.  Several of the rooms have private bath.  They are all furnished according to the Santa Fe standard."

The Harvey House closed in 1936 during the Great Depression, but the depot remained in use until the early 1970's.  The community tried to acquire the building for preservation, but the railroad ultimately said no.  A page 1 article in the September 22, 1972 edition of the Garden City Telegram says:

"Hamilton Countians have received a disappointing final "no" from Santa Fe officials concerning the possibility that the historical Sequoyah Harvey House depot in Syracuse might be given to the community for preservation as a museum.  The final "no" was contained in a letter to Cong. Keith Sebelius from L. Cena, vice president for operations of the railroad...Cena, in his letter to Sebelius said: 'So that the record may be clear, let me say that the building and underlying property is not available for use as a public building.  It is Santa Fe's intent to hold these properties for industrial development.  If that development requires that the building be razed, it will be.'...Residents have spent more than a year attempting to secure the building and had been told originally by a railroad division superintendent that the building might be available on a long term lease basis.  Within a few months, however, that offer was withdrawn."

The agent moved out in 1972 to the nearby single-story freight house.  A 1974 article in the April 21, 1974 Kansas City Star suggests the structure was still intact at that point, but aerial photos from 1977 show the two story portion had been demolished by then, leaving only the one-story baggage room on the west end:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/nDtLqYyZP3KWDRD46

The railroad finally tore down the baggage room and the brick freight depot between 2021 and 2024.

Awesome history! And I knew you wouldn’t fail… 🤗

Posted from iPhone

And correct me: but wasn’t Syracuse a division point at one time? Waaay back when… ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/24 18:18 by santafe199.

santafe199 Wrote:

> And correct me: but wasn’t Syracuse a division point at one time? Waaay back when… ?

According to Bob Walz's An Organizational History of the Santa Fe: 1869-1995, Syracuse was the boundry between the First and Second Districts of the Western Division beginning in 1905 (reassigned to the Arkansas River Division in 1919) through 1931, when the two districts were combined into the First District of the Colorado Division (Dodge City to La Junta).  Syracuse did have a small roundhouse for a time:

https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/444331/page/1

Congressman Sebelius's son was married to former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius!