The Hoyt Street Station, previously known as the North East Railroad Warehouse and Station, is located at 95 Hoyt Street (Tax Parcel No. 16-3-C5-A-002B).

The one-and-a-half story freight station has a brick facade, originally divided into eleven bays of which nine survive. A freight door opening, capped by windows, denotes each bay. Windows and ordinary doors replace the original freight doors. A small cupola occupies the center of the tiled shed roof, which has wide, over-hanging eaves with cast-iron beam supports. An awning covers the wooden walkway that fronts the facade. Tongue and groove boards cover the ceiling, roof overhang, and interior wainscotting. In the passenger depot across the dead-end tracks, two eight-sided rooms, originally utilized as the ticket office and the dispatch office, subdivide the interior. Built of brick, the depot features granite thresholds and sills and arched windows complemented by brick arches. The granite half-wall and detailing reflect the influence of the Richardsonian Romanesque style.

 

The North East Railroad Company about 1875 constructed the Hoyt Street Station as a freight depot on the Atlanta-Charlotte Airline Railway. The Georgia State Legislature had authorized bond issues to promote railroad construction after the Civil War. By a bond issue this route was extended from Lula to Belton and used immediately for the transportation of cotton. In 1895 the Southern Railroad bought out North East, established passenger service around the turn of the century, and built the passenger station in 1909. In the 1920s, the shipment of new automobiles by rail created a new business for the Southern Railroad; as the only company with a station platform large enough to handle them, Southern transported all automobiles shipped into Athens. The passenger station remained in service into the 1930s and the freight depot until 1956. In 1972 the passenger station interior was restored when this building and the freight depot became a nightclub and shopping complex called The Station; the passenger station housed The Station Restaurant and the freight depot provided space for retail shops. By 1986, though, The Station had gone out of business and the passenger depot stood vacant, threatened with demolition. At this point, the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation, serving as intermediary, facilitated a transfer of the passenger station from the Norfolk and Southern Railway to the Athens Community Council on Aging, who renovated the building as their headquarters in 1989. The freight depot, retained by Norfolk and Southern, suffered a serious fire in 1995 and remains vacant.

The Hoyt Street Station is locally designated as a Historic Landmark (November 1, 1988).