On This Date, Something Happened: Normal Depot
On This Date, Something Happened: Normal Depot
Tiger blue blood may course through the veins of University of Memphis students, but as you'll know if you've ever been late to class because of it, a train track runs through campus.
Before the U of M became the sprawling institution of higher learning that it is today, it was the West Tennessee Normal School. The school and the train depot that sat next to it opened in the fall of 1912.
The train carried arriving students (and wounded World War II vets) until 1948, when it was decomissioned. It was purchased for $200 by the re-named Memphis State University and subsequently dismantled.
The depot may be gone, but the historical marker commemorating the train's original stop lives on.
Here's what it says:
"Southern Railway's Normal Depot was completed in time for the dedication of the West Tennessee Normal School on September 10, 1912. A brick Craftsman-style building with a tiled hip roof, it was a commuter station with separate white and "colored" waiting rooms. Baggage of arriving Normal School students was hauled to their dormitories via mule drawn wagon. During World War II, trainloads of wounded personnel arrived at Normal Depot for transport to nearby Kennedy Army Hospital. The Depot was decommissioned in December 1949, purchased by Memphis State College for $200 and dismantled."
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