Oconomowoc, WI: 1896 Preserved/Milwaukee Depot

(Satellite, 530 photos)

Street View, Aug 2023

Floyd Rose posted seven photos with the comment:

From a Depot, to a Business: Oconomowoc WI. Waukesha Co. Built in 1896, for the Milwaukee Road, designed by the famous Chicago architect, Charles Sumner Frost, in a Tudor Revival style. It is currently believed to be the only remaining Granite Stone depot still standing. As the Milwaukee Road crews were building West toward the Pacific, they were instructed, as they were blasting tunnels through the Rocky Mountains to load flat cars with the most colorful rocks found, they would be used in building this Depot. It probably didn’t hurt, that the president of the Milwaukee Road at that time, Albert Earling, lived on Oconomowoc Lake. Passenger service ended here in the early 60’s. Canadian Pacific freight, (Watertown Subdivision) and Amtrak service continues today, but this location is not a Amtrak stop. Today it’s a popular restaurant, where the main dining room, originally the covered waiting pavilion, is now seating for diners to watch as the trains go by. There are many railroad pictures and artifacts, plus an HO scale Oconomowoc layout located Inside. Along next to the depot is a 1923, Northern Pacific passenger car, now used as the Victorian Railcar Banquet & Catering car, also owned by the restaurant and a restored railroad passenger umbrella shed, built in 1906. This unique stone depot is on the National Register of Historical Places.

My Photos are from 07/23/2006, 08/16/2009, 03/26/2020 and 09/21/2020. Dec. 1963 Slide, by unknown photographer. fmr

Jim Kelling shared with the comment: "Oconomowoc Wisconsin (Milwaukee Road)

Amtrak’s Empire Builder runs through here without stopping."

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Bryan Much posted 20 photos with the comment:

Oconomowoc depot.  Passenger service started in Oconomowoc back in 1854.  There is also a TMER&L station nearby that I covered earlier.  This elegant depot was built in 1896.  The railroad upgraded a string of depots in this area (Lake Country) because of the tourist component of travel here.  Oconomowoc was known as "Newport of the West".  At one time about 65 trains per day came through here including regular commuter service to Milwaukee.  Speaking of commuter service, the DOT funded a temporary commuter train (like the old Watertown to Milwaukee Cannonball) to relieve traffic during a major highway project.  Tickets were inexpensive but I think each seat cost the DOT about $45 in subsidy at that time. Presidents Cleveland, Harrison, Grant, Taft, Coolidge, McKinley, and Ted Roosevelt visited.  The Twin Cities Hiawatha ran through here from 1935 to 1971.  Years ago vendors that had boats on wagons pulled by horses would meet exursion trains to load people into their boats and haul them to area lakes to fish.  At the end of the trip, they would haul them with their catch back to the depot.  There is a passenger rail car on the site that was moved here from the Kettle Moraine Scenic Railway.  For a while the restaurant here used it as a very popular additional dining room (but not anymore).   If you dine at the restaurant, you get a close-up view of passing trains (of which there are many including Amtrak).  Back in 2019, restaurant patrons got a little bit too close of a look when a train struck a semi that was caught on the tracks.  No derailment, but a lot of noise and damage.  Tanker cars full of alcohol.  Used to be double track through here.  Now is a no train horn community.

[The comments include photos of a CP Holiday Train.]

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The passenger car now contains a model railroad layout.

Jack Franklin commented on Bryan's post
Model train set inside. My photo.

The depot's location is marked on the map.

1959 Oconomowoc West and East Quads @ 24,000