{"nrhp_refnum":"78002092","name":"Lake Shore and Michigan Southern RR Depot and Freight House","other_names":["Mentor Railroad Station"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"8445 Station St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Mentor","county":"Lake County","state":"OH","lat":41.679052512000055,"lon":-81.33826945299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-01-31","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick-and-limestone railroad passenger depot and a separate freight house at 8445 Station Street in Mentor, Lake County, Ohio, built about 1900 for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the pair as fine, well-preserved examples of a stock station design adopted by one railroad at the height of its expansion. Few such related buildings remain from a line that once had many. The city considered the station important to its past and hoped to restore it and return it to use.","narrative":"Mentor's railroad station at 8445 Station Street consists of a passenger depot and a freight house on opposite sides of the tracks, both dating from about 1900. The depot measures 26 by 66 feet, with a rough-cut limestone base, hard-fired face brick walls, a stone belt course and a gently curved slate hip roof that overhangs the walls by seven feet on wood braces. A projecting bay on the track side holds the ticket office and telegraph room, with separate men's and women's waiting rooms and a baggage room. The gable-roofed freight house has painted brick, a low stone foundation and segmental arched doorways for cargo. The pair was listed as an example of a stock design used by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad at the height of its expansion, when many similar buildings lined its route. The line from Cleveland to Painesville opened in 1851 and later passed to the New York Central and Penn Central. The city of Mentor sought to restore the buildings.","period_of_significance":"Ca. 1900","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Stock railroad station style of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as excellent and altered; present status shown as occupied. The city hoped to buy and restore the station.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.914483-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/78002092.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002092/5e838e4813-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002092/5e838e4813-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Cards84664","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mentor_(Lake_Shore_%26_Michigan_Southern).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Cards84664</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mentor_(Lake_Shore_%26_Michigan_Southern).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989605","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentor_station","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q56277945"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/lake-county/lake-shore-and-michigan-southern-rr-depot-and-freight-house-78002092/"}