At this place: Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Station

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Station was completed in 1907 at a cost of $69,751. At the time of its completion, Vicksburg was one of Mississippi’s biggest and busiest cities with a population of around 20,000 residents. Warren County was the fourth largest county in Mississippi with a population of 37,500 people.

According to late Vicksburg historian, Cyril O’Neil, “the railroad passenger trains in and out of Vicksburg averaged 22 trains daily in addition to freight trains in and out”, which required a bigger passenger depot than the previous LNO&T (Louisville, New Orleans, & Texas) depot located on Oak Street could handle. 

Over time, many of the railroad departments moved from the depot to other locations, and in May of 1974 the last of the railroad offices left the building. It was later renovated and housed multiple small businesses, shops, offices and apartments. In 2012, it reopened as the Old Depot Museum.

The Old Court House Museum has an amazing collection of old photos taken in the Vicksburg and Warren county area. If you are ever interested in getting an old photo printed for your home or business, contact the museum and they can make it happen.

Starting in 2022, Chris Bolm began to take images from the Old Court House Museum‘s photo collections and pinpoint their current locations and replicate the shot. Bolm named the series “Then and Now.”