The station was built in 1908 by the
Southern Pacific Railroad and was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places as the
Southern Pacific Passenger Depot in 2007. The current station is the third passenger depot built at this location. Built of
masonry, it is one of five masonry depots that still exist along the original Southern Pacific West Coast line. The other depots are in
Albany,
Medford,
Roseburg and
Salem. When Amtrak took over intercity rail operations in 1971, it cut back service to a single train through Eugene, what eventually became the
Coast Starlight. A brief attempt at corridor service began in 1980 with the
Willamette Valley, but ended in 1981. For the next 13 years, the only intercity service through Eugene was the
Coast Starlight, which arrived northbound at lunchtime and southbound during the afternoon rush. However, in 1994, Amtrak extended the Seattle-Portland
Mount Rainier to Eugene on a trial basis. This proved successful enough that the train was renamed the
Cascadia in 1995. The
Cascadia was merged into
Amtrak Cascades along with all of Amtrak's other Pacific Northwest services in 1998, and a Portland-Eugene round trip was added in 2000. Southern Pacific sold the building to the Jenova Land Company in 1993, and ten years later the city of Eugene bought the depot as part of a plan to develop a regional transportation center. In 2004, the city oversaw a $4.5 million
restoration project. Workers restored the exterior brickwork and trim and gutted and renovated the interior. New tile floors, oak and fir trim, covered ceilings, wooden benches and expanded bathrooms were installed. ==See also==