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The Truman Area Community Network
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The MKT's station was located at the end of Washington Street, south of Ohio. The first station on this site was built in 1870. It burned down in June of 1886 and was replaced by a new structure. In 1944 the station was remodeled and shortened by 55 feet to its present size of 72 ft. by 26 ft. Passenger service on the Katy line ended in April, 1956. In late 1978 the MKT took over the remnants of the Frisco's tracks in Clinton, including their Green Street station, and the freight operations were moved to Green Street. The Chamber of Commerce bought the old Katy station in 1979 and on December 9, 1979 the structure was moved to its current location on the southeast corner of the Square and remodeled for use by the Chamber.Picture of MKT Station in 1908 on Jack Forbes' Missouri Depots website.
Frisco Depots in Henry County page at the Springfield-Greene County Library's The Frisco Digital Collection. The picture listed as the Frisco's Clinton depot actually seems to be the the MKT station in its post-1944 remodeling form.
Picture of MKT Station in 1981 (after it was moved to the Square and converted to house the Clinton Chamber of Commerce) on Jack Forbes' Missouri Depots website.
The North Clinton Station was located just south of the crossing of the MK&T and Bailey / Blair Lines. It was built around 1883 by the Kansas City & Southern Railroad (then known as the Bailey Line.) After the Kansas City & Southern (by then known as the Blair line) completed its downtown station at Green Street in April of 1889 the station remained unused except for a brief period in 1898-1901 when the Frisco (which had acquired the Blair Line) operated through trains from Kansas City to Texas by way of Clinton and the North Clinton restaurant, operated by the famed Fred Harvey organization, was an important meal stop. In 1901 the Texas trains were withdrawn after the Frisco acquired a more direct line to Oklahoma and Texas and North Clinton was soon all but abandoned. It burnt down in the summer of 1910 and was not replaced.
Picture of Station just before demolition, from Collection of Mike GoodIn order to provide better access to downtown Clinton, the Blair Line in the spring of 1889 built a spur from Clinton Junction (just south of Sedalia St.) southwest along the MK&T tracks to a new station at Green Street between Main and 2nd. This became principal Clinton station for the Blair Line and its Frisco successor. From 1926 to 1936 the trains of the Frisco's "Leaky Roof" line also stopped at the station while running on the MKT tracks from the Allen Street connection to North Clinton. The original station was opened to service on April 8, 1889 and was 70 feet long by 22 feet wide. It was built according to the standard plans of the Wabash Railroad, the K.C. & S. having adopted the Wabash standards for its signs and other construction. During World War II the original station was shortened and remodeled with a single small combined wiating room and office. Passenger service on the Frisco line was terminated in May, 1954. After the Frisco abandoned its line through Clinton in October, 1978 the MKT took over their remaining trackage and moved its freight agent into the old Blair Line station. In 1984 the Clinton agency was closed but the building was retained for storage purposes by the MKT and later by the Union Pacific. The UP sold the depot site and building to the Henry County Library in December, 1992 and the building was torn down in the spring of 1993 to make way for the Library's parking lot.
Note: The State Depot inspection report from 1911 states the Clinton depot to be built of brick, but the newspapers accounts of the building's construction clearly indicate that it was a wood frame building and the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps show it as wooden. In its later years the depot did have brick facing on the lower 3 feet or so, but it was still funadmentally a wooden building.
This station was located south of Ohio Street about 500 feet west of the Katy Station. It was built in 1885 by the Kansas City Clinton & Springfield RR, better known as the "Leaky Roof." The Frisco took over the KCC&S under lease in Decmeber of 1924 and in January of 1926 the Leaky Roof station closed. Trains used a connection at Allen Street to reach the MKT line and ran up that line to North Clinton, with a stop at the Frisco's Green Street station. The station was torn down not long after and its foundations reused under a oil company storage building. Architect of the KCC&S station was Daniel Burnham of Chicago, who in later years would become famous as a city planner and designer of major city railway stations, including Washington, D.C.'s magnificent Union Station, now restored and still in use, and the Union Station in Chicago.
Picture of KCC&S Station in 1906 on Jack Forbes' Missouri Depots website.
The Missouri Kansas & Texas built a station at Montrose in 1871, about the time the town was laid out. This station was destroyed by a fire on September 17, 1892, and was then replaced with the second MKT station.The second MKT station at Montrose was destroyed by a fire on June 10, 1910, and was then replaced with the third MKT station.
The station was closed sometime in the late 1950s or very early 1960s. For a period after June, 1962 the station was used as office by the American Bridge Company, a subcontractor involved in the construction of Minuteman missile silos in Henry and St. Clair counties. Sometime later the station was demolished.
Picture of the Montrose station in 1910, plus a picture of the fire that destroyed that depot
Picture of the Montrose station in 1958, from Jack Forbes' Missouri Depots website
Picture of the 2nd Depot, the one that burned June 10, 1910, from the The Montrose, Missouri website.
The Frisco Depots in Henry County and Frisco Depots in St. Clair County pages at the Springfield-Greene County Library's The Frisco Digital Collection contains pictures of the Blairstown, Brownington, Gerster, Harvey, Lowry City - 1911 KCC&S, Lowry City - 1956 Frisco, Osceola, Urich and Vista stations of the Frisco and Leaky Roof, and the North Clinton Tower of the Frisco.
The picture listed as the Clinton depot actually seems to be the the MKT station in its post-1944 remodeling form.Jack Forbes' Missouri Depots website includes pictures of the Blairstown, Brownington and Deepwater, Lowry City (1909 and 1959), and Osceola stations of the Frisco, the Urich and Osceola stations of the Leaky Roof / Frisco and the Lindale, Appleton City, Montrose (1910 and 1958), Ladue, Clinton (1908 and 1981), Calhoun (1910 and 1958), and Windsor (1910 and 1979) stations on the MKT. (Along with about a thousand other pictures of Missouri Depots).
