The new Seaboard Railway Station "will be a daisy."The State editorial, May 31, 1904
Completed in early summer 1904, the Seaboard Air-Line Railway Station (now the Blue Marlin) was built by J.P. Pettijohn and Co. of Lynchburg, Va. for $35,000, and was the third passenger depot built in Columbia. The first railway station was the South Carolina Railroad Depot on Gervais St., built about 1850, followed by the Union Station on Main St., built in 1902, (which served passengers for the Atlantic Coast Line and Southern Railway).
The Seaboard Air-Line Railway Station had two waiting rooms (because of segregation:, a ticket and baggage office, and a covered walkway that was 40 feet wide and 416 feet long, which continued on the other side of Gervais Street, so passengers could reach their train cars without getting wet.
Originally, Seaboard had promised to build this new station in the Sidney Park rail yard that the city had leased to the railroad company in 1899, but the rail company chose this location on Lincoln Street instead.
This depot and baggage room were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The station served passengers on the Seaboard Air-Line Railway (later the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad until 1991.
Lower PhotosSeaboard Air-Line Railway Station, 1942. (Left to right): Southbound with a 20-year-old engine; double engins headed north; single engine (purchased in the mid-twenties) headed north.Courtesy of "Through The Heart Of The South; The Seaboard Air Line Railroad Story."Photographs by George E. Votava
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