After losing the territorial capital and watching the grade of the proposed route of the transcontinental railroad cross the state farther north, Bellevue concentrated on securing a north-south railroad to boost its lagging economy.
Early in 1869 a group of Omaha businessmen started constructing the Omaha and Southern Railroad southward toward Bellevue. This depot was erected in 1869-70 as a station on that line. By the end of 1870 the rails of the Omaha and Southern had been extended seven miles south of Bellevue.
The architectural significance of the depot lines in the fact of its general elaborateness and in the refinement of construction not always found in such structures during this period in Nebraska. The building has suffered few alterations.
It served passenger and freight transportation from Bellevue to Omaha for many years. The Omaha and Southern Railroad was later purchased by the Burlington Northern, and the depot moved in August, 1970, to this site, one mile south of its original location. On October 16, 1970, the depot was approved for the National Register of Historic Places. In 1974 it was restored by the Sarpy County Historical Society with a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
City of Bellevue
Nebraska State Historical Society
Haworth Park in Bellevue
Sarpy County
Marker 187