The East Union depot, located in the historic East Village of downtown Des Moines, was built in 1909. Depots serving more than one railroad were union depots. This depot served the Wabash Railroad, Chicago Great Western Railway, Chicago Burlington Quincy Railroad and the Des Moines, Iowa Falls & Northern Railway. It was built by the Des Moines Railway company under general contractor W.H. Brereton, for a cost of $7,500. This new depot was built on the site of a previous depot. It was described as 132 feet long by 30 feet wide, one story high with a high roof and ceiling. It was constructed of brick and was fireproofed. It was a modern city passenger station, built in the Flemish Renaissance style. The depot served the city’s east side of the Des Moines River in downtown Des Moines. The exact date which the depot ceased being used by the railway is unknown. Speculation suggests it was only used a few years and services were suspended in the 1920s. It had been used for storage and converted sometime in the 1950s to cold storage for tomatoes. In 1950 the building attached to its north side was the Tee Pee Tomato Company.

It was owned by Norfolk Southern Railway Company until 2007. After changing ownership a few more times, The newly formed non profit organization, the Des Moines Heritage Trust, purchased the depot in June, 2017. The trust plans to repair the brick building, rebuild its porte-cochere and construct a new event center which will also be used as a meeting space for local historical organizations. It will also serve as a museum to display artifacts from the city’s history. The former depot will be renamed the Des Moines Heritage center. To see plans for the renovation and construction click here. The trust is dedicated to the preservation of historic properties in the Des Moines metropolitan area.

The building’s windows and openings were bricked up, but some of the boarded up openings were torn down and it had been broken into a few years ago. A fire broke out and caused damage to the exterior, windows and doors. Last June, the DMHT held a clean up day and cleared the land of brush and weeds and cleaned out the interior of the building. What exciting things could there have been stored in the old structure? Nothing really, just left over stuff from a prior contract purchase that fell through. Pictures can be found HERE. The old depot contained nothing interesting or anything resembling an old depot. DARN!