The Central Pacific Railroad Depot in Lovelock was built in 1880 in the Stick style or Eastlake style. It was the principal point of access to the town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The building, originally located on the northeast corner of West Broadway Avenue and Main Street, was moved by the town in 1999 to its present site across Broadway Avenue.
The building consists of two wood frame sections; a 1½ story section to the south comprising the baggage room, and a two-story section to the north containing the passenger waiting room, agent’s office and agent’s quarters. Both portions are extensively detailed with finials, braces, brackets and flat board trim.
The depot was built to the Central Pacific Railroad’s “Combination Depot #2” design, the only example of its type in Nevada, but one of six built on the Central Pacific system. None of the other five examples is known to have survived.
The station was a regular stop for transcontinental train traffic, and was expanded in 1917. The station operated until the early 1990s, when it was closed. When what was now the Union Pacific Railroad announced plans to tear the depot down in 1998 the City of Lovelock expressed interest in the building. The same year the railroad signed over the building and a $42,500 donation, the projected cost of demolition. The town moved it from railroad property, completing a restoration in 2000. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
The depot is leased to private retail businesses. Public tours are not currently available.
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Courtesy S. Ward – Inside Lehman Caves