Next Stop: Aggieland!

In 1883, the middle-of-nowhere Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas got a new addition: a train depot. Though the Houston & Texas Central Railroad had made regular stops for students and faculty since the college opened, the new depot added an official gateway to campus. In 1900, a larger depot replaced the small structure and, along with a station for the International & Great Northern Railroad, welcomed countless Aggies who took their first steps across its platform on their way to greatness.

In 1938, the depot witnessed the area become an incorporated city that drew its name from the familiar conductor call, “All out for the college—College Station!” The station continued to serve visitors until 1959, when most students no longer arrived by train, and the last depot was razed in 1966.

But the building lives on in individual Aggie legacies like that of Raymond Crosby Armstrong, Class of 1925. While in college, Armstrong met his wife at the station as she was boarding a train back to Waco, and nearly 100 years later, the meeting has produced four generations of Aggies in the family. “My grandfather could never have known that one day, his great-granddaughter Alyse Armstrong ’20 would walk the same halls at the university he loved so much,” said his grandson John V. Armstrong. “And it all started at the station.”