In 1852, the Carrollton Rail Company was chartered with hopes of bringing a railroad line to Georgia’s western frontier, but the Civil War halted further progress of those dreams. By 1872, the Central of Georgia Railway Company completed a line from Savannah, through Griffin, to Newnan. However, in 1873, while grading the road west of the Chattahoochee River a layer of rock was encountered and the small railroad town of Whitesburg sprang up causing many in Carrollton to go there to use the railroad.  It was not until 1874 that the first train finally rolled into town and the town’s population doubled its 1871 figures causing many of those who had left to return.

At first four passenger trains a day chugged in and out of the depot. Leaving at five in the morning, one could change in Bremen for Atlanta, spend a day in the capitol and return by eight. As guano and other fertilizers became easily available by rail, Carroll County farmers increased cotton production, and  Carrollton became the cotton market for a wide area of west Georgia and eastern Alabama.   

Once the Reconstruction Period of the War Between the States had ended, construction of a depot in Carrollton finally began to take place. In 1881, the Central of Georgia constructed a freight depot in Carrollton that was 171 ft. long by 36 ft wide - one of the largest of the Central’s emerging railroad style depots. That same year the Rome and Carrollton Railroad was chartered in Rome to form a link north to Tennessee along the Georgia-Alabama state line.  The laying of tracks began on the Cedartown section in 1885, and a celebration of its completion was held in July 1888 at the Carrollton Depot.  This company was later renamed the Chattanooga, Rome and Columbus Railroad.  

Although several early railroad lines were chartered with hopes of extending beyond Carrollton into North Alabama and further south to Columbus, Carrollton was essentially the western terminus at the end of the line.                                                                                                                                                   

RAILROAD ARCHITECTURE

Originally, railroad depots resembled other public buildings, often with the railroad ticket offices being located at stagecoach stops or in hotels. By the Civil War in the 1860’s, the unique characteristics of railroad depots were established. Early railroad architecture usually consists of a one story building with the long side parallel to the tracks. Large cantilevered overhangs. Often prairie-style bracketed eves, protected passengers from the weather and allowed freight and baggage to be easily unloaded.  By the 1870’s, bay windows were added to give agents and passengers better visibility along the tracks of on-coming trains. Starting in the 1880’s, clock towers were often added to advertise railroad reliability and efficiency.

Early depot buildings tended to be utilitarian train sheds, although many were graceful and charming. The heyday of railroad architecture spanned from 1880 to the 1929 Depression.

Railroad architecture eventually evolved into a truly American style of architecture, a style that was an expression of our values and ideas. The designs often reflected local weather and social conditions. Major cities in the U.S. had railroad stations designed by experienced architectural firms, but small depots were built by the same railroad construction contractors who were laying rail and building maintenance sheds.

A selected “style” was often an effort for the railroad company to make the railroads unique and identifiable. The Carrollton Passenger Depot was built on the Central of Georgia’s early post antebellum “Railroad Style”. In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, vernacular brick buildings across the South would display seemingly endless variation on the theme of brick edging and ornate detailing that became the personal signature of the local mason-builder-designers in the countless nearly-forgotten southern towns. 

The size of the freight section of the Carrollton depot is testament to the success of the areas cotton growers and helped to establish the town as an area cotton market.  Along with the passenger section this depot is the largest of the Central’s brick depots still standing. Here the brick pilasters divided the building into thirteen bays each with an elegant, segmental arch to form a classic arcade.  The Carrollton depot is a great example of the Central’s emerging brick depot style similar in design to the 1874 Hampton, Georgia Depot and has elements that can be seen in the Central of Georgia’s 1876 Savannah Depot.