Those Old Train Stations: Scottsburg, Indiana

The town of Scottsburg is a town in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana.  It is not a town that is a tourist hotspot, and you are not going to read about the town in travel magazines.  What is special about this town, located 30 miles (48 Kilometers) north of Louisville, Kentucky, it was a town that not only grew around the railroad, but it is also named after a railroad official named Horace Scott.  The Jeffersonville Railroad came to Scottsburg in 1852, the town grew.  A train station was built.

The train station was built in 1872 as a passenger and freight station which was common in smaller towns.  There were separate waiting rooms: one waiting room for the men and a different waiting room for the women.  It was an active train station until the early 1950’s.  The depot was restored in 1991 and was moved one block north, and it was dedicated as the Scottsburg Heritage Station in 1996.

Today, although the railroad still passes through Scottsburg, it no longer stops here, but you can still visit the station although the interior is not open to the public.  It is located on NW Railroad Street one block west of Main Street and one block north of Indiana Route 56 east of U.S. Route 31 and Interstate 65.  The Scottsburg Train Station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of three town sites on the register.  (The other two are the Scott County Home and the Courthouse Square.)

Scottsburg, Indiana, a town built by the railroad, and a town with a little bit of history.