The Panhandle Freight House was erected in 1862 by Elias Peck to serve as a depot for the Chicago & Great Eastern Railway. After 1883, it became a freight station for the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad. It also housed the Railway Express Agency prior to being sold by the Pennsylvania Railroad c 1976.

This building is the oldest surviving Pennsy structure in the state of Indiana. The man standing in front of the photo labeled “Shaw’s Shack” is probably Shaw himself.

The Caboose

The freight depot was renovated by the Pulaski County Historical Society in 1993. Only one more item was needed to make it complete. It arrived in Winamac on August 12, 1994, and was promptly installed on tracks already laid by the caboose committee.

 

Here is the caboose committee, checking out the Conrail caboose: Ralph Fritz, Bud Conley, Steve Winicker, Richard Rabenau and Jason Jordan.

 

The freight depot is now home to the Iris Elm Garden Club.

All Tour Stops

YOU BEGAN THE TOUR ON THIS PAGE

1. 1. First Brick Block Building in Winamac
   2. Courthouse (1894-95)
      • Sculpture: The Teacher
      • Original Survey Marker
      • Time Capsules
      • War Memorials
   3. Vurpillat’s Opera House (1883)
   4. Winamac Freight Depot
   5. Panhandle Pathway
   6. St. Peter Catholic Church
   7. Location of First Frame House
   8. First United Methodist Church (1901)
   9. ISIS Theatre (1936)
   10. Pulaski County Public Library (a Carnegie library, 1916)
   11. Log Cabin Replica
   12. Artesian Well (1887)
   13. Memorial Swinging Bridge (1923)
   14. Winamac Town Park (former hunting and fishing ground of the Potawatomi)
   15. Park Pavilion (1891)
   16. Kelly Hardware (1898)

You’re back where you started!