Cass Gilbert
Commercial Buildings

Great Northern Pacific Railroad Depot - Yakima, WA
Image: Thomas R. Blanck Collection.

Northern Pacific Railway Depot (1899) North Yakima, Washington

The North Yakima Depot carries to an extreme the notion of using the center portion of the building as a decorative element. The tapered shingled walls of the tower derive from both the Goodrich Avenue Church (1886) and St. John the Divine Episcopal Church (1898-99), and the tower has little function except to support a clock and provide for an open deck. The half-timbered design differs from the Little Falls Depot in that it seems to be German- or central European-inspired (the English did not build wood towers). The large chimney is for a fireplace in the waiting room, a common feature in depots of the era. The chimney does not reflect the Germanic influence of the depot's otherwise unified design. The depot was enlarged within a few years of its construction and was later replaced.