Last week, members of Appleton City Landmarks and Restoration held their annual Taco Bar lunch at the MK & T Railroad Depot. They started serving at 11 a.m., and by noon, 130 people had come and paid $10 each to pick up lunch or eat in the historic depot, treasurer Dorothy Holt said.
The organizers also take phone orders from businesses, who come and pick up lunch for their entire staff. The money goes to cover utility costs and maintenance for the buildings in the Appleton City group has restored and maintained — the depot plus the original town library, the Moore Schoolhouse and the house museum, the latter on the grounds of the Appleton City History Center, 503 S. Maple.
The next event at the depot is a Baked Potato Bar in October. ACLR members also decorate the depot for Christmas and host Christmas in the Country with local persons selling their handmade crafts and baked goods.
The ACLR group will hold another Baked Potato Bar lunch in March, around St. Patrick’s Day, and rents the depot can for special occasions.
Last week’s Taco Bar featured tortilla chips and ground beef, with shredded cheddar cheese, salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, black olives and sour cream. Dessert was choice of a homemade brownie, pineapple cake, chocolate cake or peanut butter cake with peanut butter frosting, plus coffee, tea or lemonade.
Many people came and got their lunch in takeout boxes, while others sat and enjoyed the ambiance of the depot. Built in 1870, the MK&T depot served Appleton City until the 1950s.
“People would take the train that came through in the morning down to Nevada to shop, and come home at night,” Linda Lampkin, ADLR president, said.
The depot sat vacant for many years, then was acquired by the The Missouri Pacific Railroad, and about to be torn down until the ACLR stepped in. Twelve years later, in 1998, the ACLR also restored Railroad Park, put up a wrought-iron fence similar to the original, and added an MK&T caboose and a gazebo, making a green space in the center of town.
Many of the old depots are gone, Linda said. The AC depot used to be on the other side of the tracks, she said, and when it was moved, was flipped end to end. The rails are still in use — the train that comes to Clinton once a week still comes through Appleton City.
To raise funds to keep the depot and other historic buildings open, the ACLR group used to do home tours, Linda said. The group also owned the three-story building across the street from the depot, which was the Durly Hotel. It also served as Ellett Hospital, the name still inscribed in stone across the facade.
“The rumor is that Grover Cleveland stayed at the hotel,” Linda said. Cleveland, from New York, was the first Democratic president elected after the Civil War.
To learn more about Appleton City history, visit the Appleton City History Center and Museum, which is open on Fridays from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Donations are accepted.
Also open on Friday, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. plus those hours Saturday and Sunday through Sept. 2, is another piece of local history, the Appleton City Carousel. The carousel came to town as part of the carnival for the city fair, but after the carnival closed, Linda bought the carousel, purchased two lots on the main street, spent a year having the lots cleared and an octagonal pavilion built, then moved it in.
Named 2024’s Best Children’s Attraction in Missouri by Rural Missouri magazine in April, the carousel has drawn people from more than a dozen states and several foreign countries. The most recent riders from a foreign country were from Belize, two children who were visiting their grandparents. Linda has regulars, she said, whose grandparents or parents bring them once a week to ride the carrousel.
She also had a former police chief from Belton ride the carousel, and a 80-year-old woman came from Climax Springs with relatives to ride one of the horses. Riders must weigh under 160 pounds, the weight limit of each carousel horse or other animal. Linda also has rules about attire for safety reasons— no wet swimsuits, no flip-flops or flimsy footwear. To cover the cost of electricity, she asks for whatever U.S. bill people want to pay, as long as they don’t want change.
Linda said she expects even more carousel riders in town in the last two weeks of August. A map of the 2024 “Best of” selections is being featured at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia in the Missouri Electric Co-op’s building. She operates the ride from the Friday of Memorial Day weekend through the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.
The real reward, Linda said, is seeing the look on the faces of the young girls riding the carousel. Linda knows they are in their own world, imagining they are riding real horses.
To hop aboard the past and experience the days of the “romance of the rails,” check the Appleton City Landmark Restoration Facebook for the next event at the depot. The Appleton City Depot is in the National Register of Historic Places.
