NATCHEZ, Miss. — The city will be able to restore and use the old Broadway Street railroad depot after a decade of various delays that have left the historic landmark an empty shell.
With Natchez receiving a $144,000 historic preservation grant last month from the state, Mayor Dan Gibson said the city can now move forward to finish refurbishing the exterior and outfit the interior with public restrooms, a visitor’s information center and a small theater to show films about Natchez.
The city board has allocated at least $48,000 to help finish the depot’s restoration. The state Department of Archives & History grant is earmarked for interior repairs and finishes along with air-conditioning, plumbing and electrical installations.
Gibson said city officials’ restoration plans now call for concentrating only on the southern half of the depot. It’s uncertain what’ll be done to the building’s northern part as the mayor and city aldermen seek proposals for its use.
Built around 1915, the train station is a state-designated Mississippi Landmark the city has been struggling to renovate as far back as when Butch Brown was mayor beginning in 2012. After nearly $1 million was spent in state and city funds to restore the exterior in 2016, the building has remained empty as plans for getting a developer to complete the interior’s restoration stalled.
The train station was built for the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad and later used by Illinois Central Railroad. Passenger train service ceased in Natchez by 1945, according to historical accounts. The building later became a restaurant and souvenir shop.
Getting the Craftsman-style structure restored has been a key part of the city’s master plan for revitalizing downtown Natchez and the bluff area overlooking the Mississippi River. Gibson, who became mayor in 2020, said he continues striving “to make so much of it happen.”
Hopes were raised in 2019 when the city leased the building to movie producers Tate Taylor and John Norris to resurrect the depot as a restaurant and entertainment venue, but those plans were aborted last September when that proved to be unfeasible. The mayor has said Taylor and Norris have plans to build a restaurant on the adjacent property where the parking lot is now.
The state funds awarded for the Natchez depot in January come from Mississippi’s Community Heritage Preservation Grant program. It also allocated $300,000 for the Natchez Institute, the 1901 downtown building occupied by the Historic Natchez Foundation. The grant will be used for restoring windows.
The Romanesque-style building on Commerce Street is the oldest public school building in Natchez, according to the state Department of Archives & History.
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