Railroad History runs Deep in Mattoon

In 1835, Illinois Governor, Joseph Duncan, and the State Legislature began financing the building of railroads across the state.  One line was to run from north to south, another from east to west.  These lines were to cross in Coles County.  Corruption and economic hardship forced the project some $14,000,000 in debt and it was abandoned soon after construction began at the extremities of the lines.

The Illinois Central Railroad was chartered in 1851 to build a railroad from Cairo, Illinois to Galena, with a branch from Centralia (named for the railroad) to Chicago.  The line was finished in 1856, giving Chicago a route to New Orleans by way of a railroad-operated steamboat line between Cairo and New Orleans.

The Federal Land Grant Act signed by Millard Fillmore in late 1850 aided the IC in becoming the first railroad to finance itself by selling land to settlers.  The Illinois Central Railroad was granted 3,000,000 acres of land to assist in funding its line.  This system of supporting railroad construction became common as they developed the West. 

Under the new ownership of a Springfield, Massachusetts firm, “Phelps, Mattoon, and Barnes”, work on the Terre Haute and Alton Railroad began again in 1851.  The Illinois Central had also started its way south from Chicago.  An agreement was made that whichever of the two railroads reach the point of crossing last would endure the cost of the crossing.  The TH & A was hastily and hurriedly graded to reach Mattoon first.  In some areas grading was so poor horses and oxen were used to pull trains up steep grades.  The crossing was made in 1855 making the location an attractive spot for a settlement.  Mattoon is born, named after the partner of the corporation that built the Terre Haute and Alton, William B. Mattoon.  This was the first railroad crossing in the State of Illinois.

The Terre Haute and Alton Railroad was taken over by the Indianapolis and St. Louis in 1862, after a line connecting Alton and St. Louis was completed ending a feud between Illinois and Missouri as to where the railroad would cross the Mississippi River.  The Big Four Railroad (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis) purchased the Indianapolis and St. Louis after its foreclosure in the 1889.

The City of Mattoon donated thirty acres to the Indianapolis and St. Louis Railroad for their headquarters and maintenance shops from Litchfield.  They were brought to Mattoon on a guarantee by the city of a bonus of $60,000 in bonds to the railroad.  The bonds were paid in three installments over twenty years.  On April 4, 1870, the City voted on appropriating these bonds.  The vote passed with 517 votes in favor and only 10 against.  The money distributed in these shops was soon equal to all spent in the City. 

The Grayville & Mattoon Railroad was to connect the two cities to allow a direct route from the Mattoon railroads to the Wabash River.  This line changed hands many times and was finally completed in 1882 and known as the Peoria, Decatur and Evansville Railroad. 

The PD & E built their shops at 27^th Street and Charleston Avenue in 1880.  The City paid the railroad a sum of $50,000 to secure their location in Mattoon.  In 1900, Illinois Central purchased the bankrupt PD & E, moved its depot to the Essex House and maintained the shops.  At their peaks, around 1913, the Big Four maintenance yards employed 435 shop men in Mattoon, the Illinois Central employed 650. 

Once the railroads were here, there was a need for room and board.  This was soon eased with the construction of Mattoon’s first hotel.  The Pennsylvania House was erected June 30, 1855.  The building was already to put together when it arrived by train, and by the first night, the frame was up.  However, the structure could not withstand its own weight and the third floor collapsed onto the second.  Some people affirmed the falling of its upper story was a judgment sent to the builders for desecrating the Sabbath Day.  The hotel opened July 4, 1855.

The Essex House, which stood at the southwest corner of the intersection of the two railroads, opened in 1859.  Ebenezer Noyes, who was the proprietor of the establishment, donated the land to the TH & A.  The Essex house, also known as Union Depot, served as hotel, restaurant, and ticket office for both railroads.  It was the third brick building to be built in Mattoon.  Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and Ulysses S. Grant all stopped at the Essex.  It was torn down in 1914 to make way for Illinois Central to lower its tracks below street level creating a subway through the middle of town. 

Other notable hotels in Mattoon were the Kentucky House, City Hotel, Everett House, and Dole House.  The Dole House opened in 1871 as the Mattoon House.  It sat at the southeast corner of 17^th Street and Broadway.  It was the largest building in Mattoon until the Hulman Building was built in 1911.  The fourth story was added in 1898, which gave the hotel 100 rooms.  After improvements were completed in 1913, it became known as Hotel Byers.  In 1961, the building changed hands once again.  It was renamed Broadway hotel, but was closed September 15, 1962.  The building was razed in 1971 to improve parking in downtown Mattoon.  The site has been renamed Progress Square.

The railroads also made Mattoon the prime location for freight business.  Both railroads operated freight depots.  The Big Four Freight depot sat on the north side of their tracks just east of their passenger depot.  It was built in 1860 and used as freight depot until 1961 when the New York Central moved freight operations to their passenger depot.  The building was razed in May of 1963.

The Illinois Central freight depot operated on Lake Land Boulevard, north of Marshall Avenue from 1906 till 1969.  Companies such as UPS and Federal Express slowly took over small freight with fleets of trucks.  Railroads began handling only full cars of freight.  The freight depot gained new life when ICG began using it for a piggyback ramp.  This lasted until 1981 and on March 24, 1982, ICG had hired a contractor to raze the building.  A local proprietor stepped in and purchased the building and saved it from demolition.

Henry Wells and William Fargo formed the American Express Company in 1850 and came to Mattoon in 1892.  They were originally located on the west side of the Illinois Central tracks on the south side of Broadway.  During World War I, all express companies were combined to form one giant express company, The American Railway Express Company.   The Express building was a causality of the subway in 1914 and they were forced to relocate.  They built a new structure at the southwest intersection of the railroads, once the Essex house was razed.  The Railway Express Agency operated in Mattoon until 1964.

The demolition of the Essex house made way for both railroads to build their own depots.  The Illinois Central built a bi-level depot on the east side of their tracks serving its newly built subway.  Designed by Daniel F. McLaughlin of Chicago and built by Almon W. Stoolman of Champaign, the 14,200 square foot, three-story structure was built in the Classical Revival style of architecture.  It is still used as an unmanned Amtrak Station and is undergoing a restoration project. 

The Big Four built an impressive Beaux-Arts Classicism architectural style passenger depot on the south side of their tracks and east of the IC tracks.  S.D. Mitchell and Son of Charleston constructed the station for $50,000.  The first floor of the building served as a ticket office and waiting room and also had offices for the supervisor, train master, track supervisor, and bridge and building supervisor.  The second floor served as offices for the Division Engineer Superintendent, train timekeeper, train dispatcher, railroad telephone office and clerk’s office.  This depot continued to serve the New York Central after it absorbed the Big Four in 1922, until passenger service on this line ended in 1968.

The depot served as a hub for soldiers on their way to war in both World Wars.  During World War II, a Kansas bound train carrying German prisoners of war caused quite a commotion when it passed by the depot.  In its peak, in the late 1940’s, the depot saw at least twelve to fifteen passenger trains per day.  In 1948, Harry S. Truman gave his last campaign speech at Mattoon from the platform at the Big Four Depot. Six to eight thousand people gathered for the speech.  Throughout the 1950’s, the New York Central maintained its historic “Great Steel Fleet” of passenger trains. The Southwest Limited, The Knickerbocker and The Missourian were trains of the fleet that made stops in Mattoon.

In the 1930’s diesel powered engines began replacing steam. In 1953, New York Central moved twenty-five percent of its steam power maintenance work out of town due to diesel.  This was the beginning of the decline of the railroad presence in Mattoon.  As the railroads continued to decline, the New York Central merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad February 1, 1968 and became the Penn Central; following their bankruptcy, it became a part of Conrail on April 1, 1976.

The Big Four Roundhouse was torn down in the late 1950’s.  December 9, 1978, fire ripped through the abandoned New York Central machine shops.  The flames could be seen from Arcola.  The building was already being demolished, so once the fire department was satisfied there was no danger to nearby structures, they allowed the building to burn.  In 1985, the only remaining evidence of the Big Four yards, a skeleton of an old coaling tower, was torn down.  Conrail removed the tracks on May 27, 1983. 

The first major layoffs for the Illinois Central Railroad came in 1952.  The roundhouse was demolished in February of 1963.  A locomotive ‘service station’ was constructed at 19^th and Marion.  The new facility was designed to for fueling and washing the diesel locomotives.  The remaining shop buildings were razed in 1966.

Mattoon was created from the crossing of the railroads and they played a major role in shaping our city.  Even though they no longer play the dominant role they once did, their remnants can still be found today.  The Everett House hotel is now Hunan Restaurant.  The top floors were removed from the building after a fire in 1967.  The Illinois Central freight depot was successfully restored and holds several businesses.  The Roundhouse Baseball Complex gets its name from the New York Central maintenance shops that were once located at that site.  And the Illinois Central Railroad depot is still used as an Amtrak station and is undergoing a full restoration project.  Even though their uses may have changed, these sites still play an important role in Mattoon today.