The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1853-08-23
Railroad Deposs.
We have frequently noticed that in w

'ern cities, and by no means excepting Ev-
ansyille, an undue importance is attached to
the location of Railroad depots. In the East,
where experience has been the monitor, the
difficulties in locating depots spring up from
directly opposite cause to those which arise
here under similar circumstances. There,
these depots, with the terrible shrieking of
locomotives, the eternal rumbling of cars, the
noise and confusion of drays, hacks and om-
nibuses, and the frequent cursing and BIAS
phemy of the collected crowds of people,
utterly unfit their neighborhoods for places Of
residence. Observation teaches us that these
depots neuer create business around them, or
secure the erection of number Of business
houses. What then is their value, that they
bring serious difficulties among neighbors, in
almost every town or small city, in which a
depot is located! Probably the person or
persons owning the property selected, are
benefited by its sale. but what good point or
neighborhood in a city is especially benefit
ted by the location Of railroad depot in it,
or what one is injured by the location of a
depot at distant place!
Take the experience of those places in the
West where there are old established railroad
depots. What has the Little Miami Rail-
road depot done for that portion of Cincin-
natl in which it is locatedl Has it built a
single house not used for its own purposes!
Has it not actually prevented that portion of
the city improving with the same rapidly of
almost every part ef its outskirts, And what
has its C. H. and Dayton Railroad depot done
for directly opposite portion of the city,
1t has vacated dwelling houses, and lessened
the value Of property. thas almost ruined
as place of choice residence, one of the most
beautiful streets of the city-and not bust.
ness house has it erected in its immediate
neighborhood. A depot for this same road
was established at the foot of Main street,
Dayton. No person who can avoid it, will
now live in that neighborhood. Rents have
decreased, and the only thing it has done, has
been to build upa few dirty groggeries for
the benefit of dry passengers, who cannot
walk to more distant and respectable places.
Several depots have been established in that
vicinity, but property holders whereabouts
have been injured. What have the railroad
dePots at Buffalo and Chicago done for the
particular neighborhoods in which they are
located! They have been for years on the
outskirts of those cities. yet there are not
not much else than vacant lots around them
Thus we might continue, and prove that
where one neighborhocd hes received essen
tial Improvement from the location of a depo,
in it, fifty have actually had their prosperity
retarded from the same cause.
Railroads are, it is natural to presume
built for the benefit of the cities at which
they terminate, as well as for the country
they traverse. The location of depots il
those cities, should be made with reference 4
the one thing alone, the point most conve
nient to the road for the general transaction
of its business, where land can be procure
with proper cheapness. This point must b
the one the selection of which will most ben
eft the city, as it il that which will mos
benefit the road, and the one being benefitte
in proportion to the other. If the locatio
is fairly made and by the proper persons, a
pickering should thereafter cease, and he b
considered traitor to the interests of tn
city, who would wilfully throw obstacles j
the way Of the completion Of the improve
ment, by agitating an unhealthy fever on III
subject Of depot location, which must have tn
result to more or less injure the particuls
railroad enterprise.
Very bad.
A misunderstanding occurred in the Cit
Council at their meeting last Saturday nigh