Depot: (Satellite, north of the mainline and offset from Main Street.)
Grain Elevator: (Satellite)Water Tower: (Satellite)
Sheffield is a town that still has a railroad, but it does not have a viable grain elevator. There are a lot of abandoned grain elevators in northern Illinois, but that is normally because they lost rail service.
About half of the buildings on one side of their downtown block are Italianate. The railroad is the Iowa Interstate, IAIS, which means that it used to be the Rock Island & Pacific.
Some of the buildings in the middle of the block have been nicely restored.
It looks like the far building now has three different owners and two of them did a nice job of restoring the windows.
The foundation is now under a canopy of trees and bruss.
Mike Breski posted TRAIN TIME AT SHEFFIELD, ILLINOIS On August 2, 1911, the small town of Sheffield, Ill., 22 miles west of Bureau on the Rock Island’s main line, comes to life for the midday arrival of a passenger train bound for Chicago. Roy Campbell collection http://ctr.trains.com/photo-of-the-day/2019/03/train-time-at-sheffield-illinois Dennis DeBruler: Judging from the water standpipe, the Rock Island decided they needed to add water to the tenders here so they built a water tower and depot. An entrepreneur probably soon built a grain elevator and a new town was born. It is hard to imagine how important the depot, trains and newspapers were for a town back in the horse & buggy days. Not only was there no internet and smart phones, there was no radio! Jan Rodgers: Dennis DeBruler you are correct. The base of the water tower is still in existence. The grain elevator was added. I will find out more. I currently work at the museum in Sheffield, Illinois. I am researching the town's beginning starting with the Sheffield Transportation and Mining Company. Hopefully I will put together an interesting presentation and display. |
20141017 0023c |
About half of the buildings on one side of their downtown block are Italianate. The railroad is the Iowa Interstate, IAIS, which means that it used to be the Rock Island & Pacific.
Some of the buildings in the middle of the block have been nicely restored.
It looks like the far building now has three different owners and two of them did a nice job of restoring the windows.
Jan Rodgers commented on Dennis' comment on the post at the top of these notes This is the stone foundation of the water tower. |
The foundation is now under a canopy of trees and bruss.
Jan Rodgers commented on Dennis' comment on the post at the top of these notes |
Dennis DeBruler commented on his comment I used this 1941 aerial photo to find the tower. Wow, that was a tall water tower. Judging by the shadows, it was about as tall as the two grain elevators. https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/webdocs/ilhap/county/data/bureau/flight8/00rr2b197.jpg |
Jan Rodgers commented on Dennis' comment on the post at the top of these notes |
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