A one-story depot building was constructed here in 1853, when the railroad was first laid through Stevenson. That building burned after the Civil War and was replaced by the present brick depot and hotel in 1872.
During the Civil War, Stevenson was a hub of activity. Union and Confederate troops skirmished here and the town changed hands more than once, though Stevenson mostly lay under Union control. Troops occupied the town and a large refugee camp sprang up between the depot and Ft. Harker, a quarter-mile east.
Tens of thousands of soldiers, horses, wagons, prisoners of war, refugees, wounded men and others passed through Stevenson during the late summer and fall of 1863, before, during and after the Battles of Chattanooga and Chickamauga. Harper's Weekly, an influential newspaper of the time, noting the juncture of East-West and North-South rail lines here, called Stevenson "One of the seven most important cities in the South."
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After the war, the depot and hotel continued as the center of life in Stevenson. Trains stopped here at mealtimes and passengers ate in the hotel dining rooms. Other passengers spent the night here; the hotel is so close to the tracks that it was said the trains "opened the hotel windows and pulled the covers off the beds." Generations recalled final passenger departures and arrivals here, often sad and poignant especially during war times.
A group of citizens saved the depot from destruction during the Bicentennial in 1976, when the last railroad office closed. The depot was renovated for use as a community museum, which opened in June 1982.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places 5/13/1974
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