East Des Moines Union Depot, the Dutch Revival building you have come to, sits in the Market District, anchored in the East Village Historic District east of the Des Moines River. Completed in 1909, this is the depot William H. Brereton built for the Des Moines Union Railway. Its purpose was plain and proud: to serve a constellation of lines — the Wabash Railroad, the Chicago Great Western Railway, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and the Des Moines, Iowa Falls and Northern Railway.
You can let your eyes follow the roofline and brickwork that mark its Dutch Revival roots, and imagine the steady movement of passengers and freight that once passed through here. The depot’s working life as a railroad station lasted until the 1950s, and when trains no longer called, the building was sold and repurposed as cold storage for tomatoes. More recently, in 2017 The Des Moines Heritage Trust purchased the depot and completed a $4 million renovation in 2021, returning attention and care to the place.
Notice the Market District and East Village stretching out, with the Des Moines River just to the west.