Oldest surviving commercial structure in Dalton, Civil War troop depot, and documented site of 19th-century phantom locomotive sightings along the W&A line.
110 Depot St, Dalton, GA 30720
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Exterior viewing free; any dining at current tenant is separately priced
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat sidewalk access on Depot Street
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1852 · Oldest surviving commercial structure in Dalton · Great Locomotive Chase connection · Civil War Confederate troop depot · National Register of Historic Places
The Western and Atlantic Depot at 110 Depot Street was completed in 1852 as a passenger and freight station on the Western and Atlantic Railroad, the state-owned line linking Atlanta to Chattanooga. The Greek Revival brick structure is the oldest surviving commercial building in Dalton and stands as the only antebellum railroad depot still intact on the W&A route in Georgia.
The depot gained its place in Civil War history on April 12, 1862, when a group of Union soldiers under civilian spy James Andrews hijacked a locomotive called The General from the Marietta station and drove it north along the W&A tracks — the episode now known as the Great Locomotive Chase. The pursuit passed through Dalton; Confederate forces finally caught Andrews and his raiders near Ringgold, Georgia. Andrews and seven of his men were executed in Atlanta as spies.
During the Atlanta Campaign of 1864, Dalton served as a major Confederate defensive position and the depot functioned as a logistical hub for Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee. After Union forces took Dalton in May 1864, the building passed through federal hands. It survived the war and remained in railroad use into the 20th century before transitioning to commercial tenants including a long-running restaurant operation.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its architectural and historical significance as the oldest surviving commercial structure in Dalton.
Sources
The phantom locomotive near Dalton has an unusually well-documented paper trail for a 19th-century haunt. An 1881 account in the Marietta Journal described witnesses seeing a spectral train charging silently along the Western & Atlantic tracks about two miles from town, traveling without sound or steam. Two years later, in 1883, the North Georgia Citizen published a second account describing the apparition as semi-transparent — a detail that matches no known optical or mechanical phenomenon of the period.
Researchers who have traced these accounts note that the W&A tracks were the site of the Great Locomotive Chase in 1862 and multiple wartime incidents during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, which may have layered traumatic associations onto the rail corridor that local witnesses channeled into the phantom locomotive legend.
The depot building itself is not directly tied to the paranormal accounts, which place the sightings approximately two miles up the line from town. But as the principal W&A structure still standing in Dalton — and the only antebellum depot on the route — it serves as the geographic anchor for the story.
Walk or drive past the 1852 Greek Revival depot — oldest surviving commercial structure in Dalton — and read the historical markers connecting it to the Great Locomotive Chase and Civil War troop movements along the Western & Atlantic Railroad.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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