Boyce Station Railroad Depots, Hamilton County TN

Boyce Station Depots, 1850-1980

This is a list and basic description of the seven known depots that have served the community of East Chattanooga in Hamilton County, Tennessee.

Boyce Station Depots, 1850-1980

1st Boyce Station Depot:  Pre-Civil War depot built by Western & Atlantic Railroad (W&A), also known as Old Boyce that became the center of a prosperous community whose growth was stunted by the war.  The depot on the left bank/south side of South Chickamauga Creek just north of Harrison Pike after it crossed Sivley Ford.  The depot burned in during the fighting in 1863 and the community dispersed.  In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the W&A had a signal stop here called Kings Bridge Station.

2nd Boyce Station Depot: First post-Civil War depot, built by the W&A in 1866 after the release of the line from the US Military Rail Roads.  It was swept away in the 1867 flood.

3rd Boyce Station Depot: When Boyce Station was rebuilt in 1867, it was moved to higher ground away from the Chickamauga, roughly in what later became the northwest corner of the Curtis and Sims Streets (an 1887 news article said the newer depot was one-half mile “above” the old one, speaking from a Chattanooga POV).  It was most likely small as it was used as a house after it was replaced.

4th Boyce Station Depot:  Built by W&A at the end of Roanoke Street in 1879 on the west side of its tracks north of Wilder Street.  This was the Boyce Station depot to which the Belt Line was built in 1889, and was initially used by the Cincinnati Southern Railway .  From 1880 to 1884, the name changed to Amnicola Station to match the post office before reverting to the former name, but both names were used interchangeably on tickets and railroad schedules for the rest of the 19th century

5th Boyce Station Depot:  This was built by CNO&TP in 1881 after leasing the Cincinatti Southern Railway from the City of Cincinnati.  It was on the east side of the CNO&TP line next to the W&A’s Amnicola Station depot just north of Wilder Street.  In 1892, the railroad dismantled, transferred, and reassembled it at Whitely, Kentucky, at which the railroad returned it its previous sharing of the Boyce depot, now with the Nashville, Chattanooga, & St. Louis Railway (NC&StL) which had leased the W&A from Georgia.

6th Boyce Station Depot:  Built by Southern Railway (SOU) after 1894, it was much larger and more posh than its two predecessors.  In addition, the Belt Line (now electrified and currently run by Belt Railway of Chattanooga) no longer ended at the depot, but close by, just to the north of the intersection of Roanoke Street and Wilder Street.

7th Boyce Station Depot:  SOU built this depot in 1913 to replace the previous one which burned in 1912.  It stood between the CNO&TP line and the W&A line.  NC&StL ceased using it early in the Depression while CNO&TP closed it in 1938, ending long-haul passenger service to Boyce Station. 

8th Boyce Station Depot: Operated by CNO&TP, this was an agency station, a type of freight depot with an agent, which in railroad terms means someone available to deal with public pricing services.  It closed in 1980 to consolidate with DeButts Station.