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Milwaukee Depot

Milwaukee Depot line art illustration (click image to enlarge)

Artist's notes:

The drawing of the old Milwaukee Depot was completed in the fall of 1995. Unlike much of my architectural renderings of the buildings of my home town, I decided to go with a more historical view of the building, replacing the now long gone "crown" on the top, and including the covered entrances to the depot, as these too were long since lost. Working from very old photos, I tried to recreate the depot as it may have looked in the distant pass, when trains still brought passengers into the heart of downtown Minneapolis.

Information about the Milwaukee Depot:

The Milwaukee Depot - also called the Old Milwaukee Road Depot - was a depot in downtown Minneapolis that brought trains into the city for seven decades. The structure was built in 1899, and the last train left in 1971. It was a travel and business hub, built in the Renaissance Revival Style. The interior was beautiful, with white marble floors, a ceiling of paneled oak and brown and cream colored bricks made up the walls. As Minneapolis grew, the depot was very active with dozens of trains coming and going daily. By 1971, however, the train traffic slowed to a stop and all service was cut. The building sat unused for many years, until 1998 when the property was developed and a large complex constructed, incorporating much of the original parts of the building. In the complex is an indoor water park, a center for the history of the building, hotels, parking lot and a seasonal ice skating rink.