Yesterday, I found myself in Macon Count to appear in court before Judge Weber and argue a motion for summary judgment. It seems that every time I go to Decatur, it is cloudy and dreary. I took a photo of the Transfer House, but it did not come out, so I'm using a public domain photo from the Wikimedia Commons by Douglas Grhone.Sitting in a park in downtown Decatur is the Decatur Transfer House. This structure used to sit literally in the middle of the intersection of East Main Street and North Main Street. All streetcar lines, and for a time, cars of the Illinois Traction System, passed by the house on their way through town.
The house was encircled by a loop which all car lines fed into.
Later, the IT moved its tracks, and stopped using this portion of the city system. Decatur went to the bus in 1936, but the Transfer House remained in service. Later, the building was moved to a downtown city park, where it sits today in good condition.
This is the last Dave's Depots for a little while. I'm off to Rolla, MO for the weekend, and then off to Kauai, Hawaii for 8 days. For the event in Rolla, Hicks Car Company member Frank needs to brush up on his reading of Genesis, Chapter 2.
Congratulations and best wishes.
ReplyDelete"It is not good for the man to be alone."
ReplyDeleteAnyhow... I go through Decatur all the time to visit the in-laws, and somewhere I've got a better picture of the station, but I can't find it now. It's certainly an interesting example of preservation, isn't it?
I agree, and I'm glad they saved it. Decatur, unfortunately, is one of those towns that has seen better days, and it's nice to see something from the heyday survive. Actaully, there is a lot of neat architecture in downtown Decatur, so much that it looks like the older parts of downtown St. Louis
ReplyDeleteTo add to my previous post. One of the advantages to my job it that I get to see a lot of the central and southern parts of Illinois, and all of the neat architecture. The Macon County Courthouse is a well-preserved Art-Deco building. The courtroom I argued my motion in was pretty neat with wood-paneled walls and other Art Deco details, but I digress....
ReplyDelete