{"nrhp_refnum":"94000029","name":"Wabash Railroad Station and Railway Express Agency","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"780 E. Cerro Gordo St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Decatur","county":"Macon County","state":"IL","lat":39.84740561600006,"lon":-88.94655256399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1994-02-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story yellow brick railroad station with an attached one-story Railway Express Agency, built in 1901 at 780 East Cerro Gordo Street in Decatur, Macon County, Illinois, and designed by St. Louis architect Theodore Link.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the property is locally significant under Criterion A for its role in transportation. It served as a division headquarters, dispatchers' offices, and passenger depot for the Wabash Railroad and later the Norfolk and Western from 1901 until the early 1980s. It is also described as the last remaining historic railroad station in Decatur.","narrative":"Built in 1901 and designed by St. Louis architect Theodore Link, this Classical Revival railroad station in Decatur, Illinois, is made of yellow brick with terra cotta trim and a stone foundation. A one-story Railway Express Agency, built the same year, adjoins it by a breezeway. The station replaced an earlier Union Station and served as the Wabash Railroad's division headquarters, with a large force of dispatchers working on the second floor. It was the only Decatur station to house division offices. Passenger service peaked in 1907, and the building later hosted wartime canteens and visits by Theodore Roosevelt, Eugene Debs and Dwight Eisenhower. Passenger trains declined from the 1920s, and Amtrak left in the early 1980s. The building was later vacant and vandalized, though most of its exterior and some original interior marble and ticket counter survive. It is the last historic railroad station remaining in Decatur, and its significance rests on its role in the city's rail transportation.","period_of_significance":"1901-1943","architect_builder":"Link, Theodore, architect; Menke, Edward H., builder","architectural_style":"Classical Revival","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Listed as vacant and not in use; Amtrak abandoned the station in the early 1980s, vandals broke many second-floor windows, and the owners were planning rehabilitation.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.038025-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/13/8935/28893513/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/94000029.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000029/115d93a06a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000029/115d93a06a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Archedamian","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wabash_Railroad_Station_and_Railway_Express_Agency.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Archedamian</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wabash_Railroad_Station_and_Railway_Express_Agency.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893513","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decatur_station_(Illinois)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19878530"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/macon-county/wabash-railroad-station-and-railway-express-agency-94000029/"}