Greenwood, MS (GWD)

Carrollton Avenue and East Gibson Street
Greenwood, MS 38930

Station Hours

Annual Ticket Revenue (FY 2023): $1,157,909
Annual Station Ridership (FY 2023): 12,964

• Ownerships
• Routes Served
• Contact
• Local Community Links

• Facility Ownership: Canadian National Railway Company (CN) Illinois Central (IC) (A subsidiary of CN)
• Parking Lot Ownership: Canadian National Railway Company (CN) Illinois Central (IC) (A subsidiary of CN)
• Platform Ownership: Canadian National Railway Company (CN) Illinois Central (IC) (A subsidiary of CN)
• Track Ownership: Canadian National Railway Company (CN) Illinois Central (IC) (A subsidiary of CN)

• City of New Orleans

Todd Stennis
Regional Contact
governmentaffairsnol@amtrak.com
For information about Amtrak fares and schedules, please visit Amtrak.com or call 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245).

• City of Greenwood
• Greenwood Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Main Street Greenwood

The Greenwood depot was built in 1917-18 by the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, an Illinois Central Railroad subsidiary. On August 10, 1917, the Greenwood Enterprise reported, “The new station will be one of the handsomest on the lines of the Illinois Central Railroad in a town the size of Greenwood, and will far surpass any station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley or Illinois Central lines between Memphis and New Orleans.”

Composed of dark red brick with a hipped roof, the one-story depot cost an estimated $60,000. Situated just southeast of downtown, it replaced a late-19th century gabled wooden depot that had vertical board and batten walls. This earlier structure was moved to make way for the new station building and was repurposed for freight handling.

The depot stretches out along the tracks, its horizontal massing emphasized by a belt course that wraps around the building at the level of the window sills, while a decorative course of soldier bricks (with the long, narrow sides exposed) runs above the windows and entryways. Trackside, a projecting bay with windows on three sides enabled the station master to monitor activity up and down the rail line.

Passenger functions were located on the north end, where large windows allowed natural light to brighten the waiting room. To the south, spaces were used for baggage, parcel and freight services, as indicated by the small windows, placed high on the wall for security, and the wide doors on both the street and track sides of the building that let carts be easily moved between the depot and train.

Studying historic images, dormer windows once punctuated the roof, and an integrated canopy supported by slender columns covered much of the platform, protecting passengers and parcels from inclement weather and the strong summer sun. These elements were later removed.

In April 2022, Amtrak and the community celebrated completion of a $5.4 million project to improve accessibility and the customer experience at the Greenwood station. Work included construction of a new concrete platform that correctly matches the train height and a renovated waiting room with restroom, drinking fountains and new bench seating.

Also included were two ramped connections from the parking lot with two accessible parking spaces. These ramps assist all travelers with wheeled luggage or strollers, in addition to customers who use mobility devices. Amtrak also coordinated with the city in a redesign of the sidewalk along Carrollton Ave. to create a better pedestrian connection to the depot. The improvements were officially unveiled during a ribbon-cutting on April 20 that included Amtrak Vice President Dr. David Handera, who led a delegation of Amtrak officials, and Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams, who was joined by other city and community leaders.

Today, the depot falls within the boundaries of Greenwood’s Railroad Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Amtrak began serving Greenwood and Yazoo City in 1995, when the City of New Orleans was rerouted westward between Jackson, Mississippi, and Memphis.

Greenwood is the county seat of Leflore County. The Tallahatchie and Yalobusha rivers meet here to form the Yazoo River. Greenwood is one of the few places where one can stand between two rivers flowing in the opposite direction (the Tallahatchie and the Yazoo). The Choctaw and Chickasaw were the first inhabitants of the Mississippi Delta. In 1830, Choctaw Chief Greenwood Leflore signed the Treaty of Dancing Creek, opening the area to European-American settlers. Later that year, John Williams founded a trading post called Williams Landing. The settlement began to grow, and in 1844 was incorporated as “Greenwood” after Greenwood Leflore.

Greenwood’s cotton industry flourished due to the city’s strategic location in the heart of the delta. It served as a shipping location to Vicksburg, St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans. For many years, Greenwood was known as the “Cotton Capital of the World.”

During the Civil War, Greenwood played an important, yet little known, role. In early 1863, Union General Ulysses S. Grant planned to attack the port city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, by way of the Tallahatchie and Yazoo rivers. A makeshift Confederate fort was placed between the two rivers. The Confederates fiercely defended the waterways and sunk the Union paddle wheeler, Star of the West. Grant retreated north to the Mississippi River to find another way to attack Vicksburg.

By the end of the Civil War, Greenwood’s cotton industry was hurting, and the city saw very little growth. However, the arrival of the railroad in the 1880s turned the city’s luck around. Two lines intersected in downtown Greenwood, the Columbus & Greenville Railway and the Illinois Central. The city reemerged as a cotton shipping point. Downtown’s Front Street became known as Cotton Row. The cotton industry dominated until the 1960s, and the fiber remains as one of the major crops of the soil-rich Mississippi Delta.

Leflore County’s African American community has produced extraordinary musicians, such as Mississippi John Hurt, B. B. King, Walter “Furry” Lewis, Denise LaSalle and Hubert Sumlin. Radio station WGRM in Greenwood was the site of B. B. King’s first live broadcast. Historic Browning, part of Greenwood, is the oldest African American community in the state, and one that shaped the delta blues musicians. The blues musician Robert Johnson has three memorial gravestones in the Greenwood area. Little Richard recorded a song entitled, “Greenwood, Mississippi.”

Other notable Greenwood residents include Fred Carl Jr., founder and CEO of Viking Range Corporation, pro football player Kent Hull, Willye White, a five-time Olympian and medalist, Gerald Glass, a professional basketball player, and vocalist Bobbie Gentry.

Today, Greenwood is experiencing a growing tourism industry and a cultural renaissance. It is the home of the Viking Range Corporation and the Viking Cooking School. Its historic downtown offers a boutique hotel, upscale shops, fine dining, museums and galleries. However, Greenwood’s small town charm and Southern hospitality remain intact.

Station Building (with waiting room)