Original Train Depot & Interurban Railway

Original Train Depot and Interurban Railway. . , Former J.C. Wright and Son Lumber, Grain and Coal , In July 1900, the new train depot was opened. Once vacated, the original depot was purchased for $85 by Jessie Cook Wright. It was moved to the west side of Washington Street in 1903 and converted to the office building for J.C. Wright and Son Lumber, Grain and Coal. An elevator was later added to the office building. , The elevator and lumber yard were sold to Roy Harberg, a Springfield lumber dealer, at a sheriff's sale in February 1940. It was renamed the Harberg Lumber Yard. Later that same month, Harberg sold the grain elevator portion of the business to the Corby Transfer Company. , On September 9, 1954, the original train depot building caught fire. Due to heavy damage, the original depot and elevator buildings were demolished and are no longer at this location. , Interurban Railway's Brief History , In 1908, the Nebraska Traction and Power Company (later renamed the Omaha and Lincoln Railway and Light Company) publicized plans for an interurban street railway. The plans included six miles of rails to be built with three-and-a-half of those miles being laid southward to Papillion on Washington Street, ending at Papillion's northern city limits of Sixth Street (later extended a block further south). The tracks were completed in October 1911. A large crowd of excited residents gathered to greet the first interurban car when it arrived on October 1, 1911. Many of those residents boarded the car for its celebrated inaugural trip to Omaha. , Omaha and Lincoln Railway and Light Company ended its service in Papillion in May 1926. Bus service arrived in Papillion with a route that ran from the southern limits of Papillion to downtown Omaha. Buses and automobiles were viewed as more reliable and comfortable sources of transportation.