Bemidji in Beltrami County, Minnesota — The American Midwest (Upper Plains)

Bemidji's Great Northern Depot

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 6, 2023

1. Bemidji's Great Northern Depot Marker

Inscription.
June 1911
Bemidji Commercial Club entertains Louis Hill, Governor Eberhart, and others at Markham Hotel for dinner and tours them around the Bemidji area hoping Hill will commission a new Great Northern Depot in Bemidji.

April 24, 1912
James J. Hill gives a speech at Bemidji armory promising work will start at once on a new brick depot and it will be completed before late fall.

July 1912
Construction begins with George Kreatz as contractor. The depot will be 217 feet long by 32 feet wide (7,000 square ft.)

Jan. 17, 1913
James J. Hill's last commissioned depot is dedicated in Bemidji. Hill died in 1916.

1940s - 1983
The Great Northern Depot serves passengers until 1959. After Great Northern merges with Northern Pacific to become Burlington Northern (1970), it serves as a freight depot. In the mid-1980s, service ends and the Great Northern Depot is abandoned. Vandals and the elements cause the building to deteriorate. Demolition appears imminent.

1988
Bemidji's Great Northern Depot is placed on National Register of Historic Sites.

Jan 1997
The Historical Society Museum Committee holds first meeting to develop plan to restore

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the depot and convert it into an historical museum.

1998
Citizens of Bemidji rally to save the depot from proposed demolition and form the Bemidji Heritage Preservation Commission. City of Bemidji purchases the building and leases land. Grant money from State of Minnesota, funds raised locally, and money from City of Bemidji and Beltrami County are used to restore the depot and remodel interior for use as a museum.

Oct. 2000
Open house celebrates completion of restoration and opening of the museum. Beltrami County Historical Society moves into building.

Erected by Beltrami County Historical Society.

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Architecture • Education • Industry & Commerce • Railroads & Streetcars. In addition, it is included in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) series list. A significant historical date for this entry is January 17, 1913.

Location. 47° 28.056′ N, 94° 52.943′ W. Marker is in Bemidji, Minnesota, in Beltrami County. It is on Minnesota Avenue Southwest just south of 1st Street West, on the left when traveling south. The marker is mounted at eye-level, directly

Marker detail: Bemidji's First Depot • 1898 image. Click for full size.

2. Marker detail: Bemidji's First Depot • 1898

Bemidji’s first Great Northern Depot was built in 1898, just west of the current location. After the new brick depot was built in 1912, the old one was used strictly for freight.

on the subject building, just to the left of the front lobby entrance. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 130 Minnesota Avenue Southwest, Bemidji MN 56601, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Minnesota’s Northland. It is also in the American Midwest

and in the Corn Belt.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Great North Woods,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once Rupert’s Land,

the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

the Louisiana Purchase,

and the Northwest Territory.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Great Northern Depot (within shouting distance of this marker); Paul Bunyan and Babe (approx. ¼ mile away); Leader & Peacemaker (approx. 0.3 miles away); Tragedy and Survival (approx. 0.3 miles away); Promises Made, Promises Broken (approx. 0.3 miles away); Shaynowishkung (approx. 0.3 miles away); First Reserve Unit in the United States Called into Active Service in World War I (approx. 0.3 miles away); Carnegie Library

Great Northern Depot aka Burlington Northern Freight Depot image. Click for more information.

via NPS, unknown

3. Great Northern Depot aka Burlington Northern Freight Depot

National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
NPGallery Digital Asset Management System
Click for more information.

(approx. 0.4 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Bemidji.

Regarding Bemidji's Great Northern Depot. National Register of Historic Places #88000673.

From the National Register Nomination:
The Great Northern dominated the city's passenger and freight business until 1910, when the Soo Line laid its tracks into the city and erected a new "union" station. To counter the competition, the Great Northern completed its own new depot in 1913. The depot has a distinctly neo-classical flavor, deriving primarily from the architectural detailing of portals and fenestration. The east two-thirds of the building was designed as a baggage and freight house. The western third of the building originally contained waiting rooms and station offices.

Related markers. Click here for a list of markers that are related to this marker. Great Northern Depot

Also see . . . Bemidji Great Northern Depot. Wikipedia entry:
Excerpt:

On April 25, 1912, a headline in the Bemidji Daily Pioneer announced: "Hill Promises a New Brick Building". Work was to start immediately. Plans that had been drawn up the previous year were re-examined
Minnesota Historical Society

4. Marker detail: James J. Hill
Canadian-born James J. Hill, Great Northern Railroad mogul, was responsible for much of the railroad expansion across the country in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In 1907, his son Louis, president of Great Northern, indicated that a new depot could be built in Bemidji. In spite of improvements that had been made to the wooden structure that had served as the Great Northern Depot for nine years, it could not compete with the brick Union Station built in 1910 just down the tracks.
because they called for an expensive "Permanent Type A depot, usually built for towns of 20,000 or more." But when Hill visited Bemidji, the first thing he noticed when he stepped off the train was an impressive new brick Minnesota and International Railway depot just down the tracks to the east. "We will build a depot and a good one," he said. Thousands of people toured the depot for its grand opening on January 16, 1913.
Thanks to the hard work and fundraising of a devoted Historical Society Museum Committee, and a state capital bonding bill for $650,000, the building was saved and renovated at a cost of nearly two million dollars. It reopened as the home of the Beltrami County Historical Society in October 2000. The adjacent rail line is still in active use by the BNSF Railway.

(Submitted on October 30, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

Marker detail: Great Northern Railway Herald image. Click for full size.

Great Northern Railroad Historical Society

5. Marker detail: Great Northern Railway Herald

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 6, 2023

6. Bemidji's Great Northern Depot Marker

(marker is on left side of front lobby entrance)

Bemidji's Great Northern Depot (<i>northwest elevation</i>) image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 6, 2023

7. Bemidji's Great Northern Depot (northwest elevation)

Credits. This page was last revised on January 3, 2024. It was originally submitted on October 30, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 675 times since then and 236 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on October 30, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. 3. submitted on November 1, 2023, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York. 4, 5, 6, 7. submitted on October 30, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.