Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company Depot, Railroad depot museum in downtown Baton Rouge, United States
The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company Depot is a 1925 Classical Revival station at 100 South River Road, facing the Old State Capitol. It has a two-story main block flanked by two one-story wings, and since 1994 it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It now houses the Louisiana Art and Science Museum, whose galleries hold a Ptolemaic Egyptian mummy and a Solar System display on astronomy and meteors.
The depot was built for the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad line connecting Memphis to New Orleans. After the company merged with Illinois Central Railroad, the building lost its original function and was later converted into a museum.
The station's name survives in its National Register listing as the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Co. Depot, added May 19, 1994. In 1949 the Illinois Central's all-coach Planter called here between Memphis and New Orleans via Vicksburg, alongside two other trains each way to New Orleans. In its last years the depot was served by the Missouri Pacific, not the Illinois Central.
The museum occupies the 1925 depot at 100 South River Road in downtown Baton Rouge, directly across from the Old State Capitol. The two-story main block and its two one-story wings face the river; the entrance is on the street side. The building is a listed historic monument, so visitors should confirm current opening hours before travelling.
The steam engine once displayed outside was IC-333, a 0-6-0 locomotive formerly owned by the Charles Black Sand & Gravel Company of Fluker, Louisiana. It and its tender were removed from the site in 2011, so visitors today will not find it there.
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