A depot has existed at this location since the
first transcontinental railroad arrived in Reno in 1868; The
Virginia and Truckee Railroad additionally served the station after the line from Carson City was completed in 1872. The first station was temporary, lasting only a few months before being replaced by the Depot Hotel, a combination structure which also featured a restaurant. The hotel was likely a joint venture between the Central Pacific and a local proprietor. After surviving several fires, it eventually succumbed to the March 1879 Reno fire but was quickly rebuilt. The second Depot Hotel would, itself, burn down on May 1889 and the railroad decided to exit the hotel business in Reno. That December, a new one-story depot opened which also housed a
Wells Fargo office.
Southern Pacific went on to expand the facility, adding gendered waiting rooms. Before 1910, the
Nevada–California–Oregon Railway depot in Reno was located immediately to the north of the Southern Pacific station. The
Western Pacific Railroad provided service to Reno after their acquisition of the NCO in Nevada, but never used this station — instead using the (now disused for rail service)
Nevada–California–Oregon Railroad Depot, a few blocks to the east. The Southern Pacific Depot was also the terminus of Reno's street railways:
Reno Traction Company streetcars and the
Nevada Interurban served the station between 1908 and 1925. '' at the fourth incarnation of the Reno station, . Locals began calling for a more grand
station building as early as 1910. The current stucco depot was built by the
Southern Pacific Railroad in 1926. The new building reused bricks which had been used by the previous structure. The Virginia and Truckee utilized the station until 1950, when the railroad ceased operations.
ReTRAC The station was enlarged in 2007 as part of the Reno Transportation Rail Access Corridor (ReTRAC) project, which
grade separated the tracks to mostly eliminate
grade crossings in downtown Reno. In the process of excavating around the depot, many artifacts from Reno's past were discovered including a long filled-in pedestrian tunnel and a previously unknown basement at a former
masonic lodge. Many items from the excavation are on display in the station lobby, including an old
cistern used by the fire department, a horse watering fountain, Native American artifacts, and several bottles dating as far back as the 1860s. As part of the renovation, Amtrak moved most of its operations to a glass-enclosed addition near the trench, though passengers can still use the original waiting area. On December 4, 2012, it was announced that the station would be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. ==See also==