{"nrhp_refnum":"86003168","name":"Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Depot","other_names":["Tamms Depot"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Front St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Tamms","county":"Alexander County","state":"IL","lat":37.235481340000035,"lon":-89.26973822399998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-11-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small railroad depot on Front Street in Tamms, Alexander County, Illinois, built around 1899 for the Chicago & Eastern Illinois line and shared with the Mobile & Ohio line. It is now village property and houses municipal offices.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the depot is the last tangible resource in Tamms from the town's early railroad era, when the railroads and the town's founder, Oscar T. Tamm, drove local growth. It is noted for an unusually curved east wall and for a dispatchers' room where staff of two railroads worked side by side. It was restored by townspeople after the passenger line closed in 1955.","narrative":"Built around 1899 on Front Street in Tamms, Illinois, this railroad depot served the Chicago & Eastern Illinois and the Mobile & Ohio lines, later the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio. The town's founder, Oscar T. Tamm, donated land to bring the railroads through and promote his community. The depot is notable for a sharply curved east wall described as architecturally rare, and for a dispatchers' room where operators of both railroads worked together, with long switch levers rising through the floor from a space below. Freight such as lumber, produce, poultry, livestock, dairy goods and cotton moved through it, and it was a gathering place for residents until passenger service ended in 1955. Boarded up afterward, it was bought by the people of Tamms in 1982 and carefully restored, keeping most original exterior walls and its red tile hipped roof. Today it holds village offices and is the last surviving building from the town's early boom years, with a caboose on the site.","period_of_significance":"1900-1936","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Restored and in use as Tamms village offices (City Hall, clerk, mayor's office and board room) and a tourist information point; about 97% of the exterior walls and the red tile roof are original.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.245967-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/14/8917/28891714/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/86003168.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003168/ca2252e4ea-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003168/ca2252e4ea-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tamms_Depot_front.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tamms_Depot_front.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28891714","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamms_station","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16901148"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/alexander-county/chicago-and-eastern-illinois-railroad-depot-86003168/"}