The Geneva Train
Depot
The Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) began building its Okeechobee Branch from New Smyrna to Belle Glade in 1911. The Geneva train depot was built in 1913 and was located a short distance south of Avenue “C” and west of 2nd Street. The sketch is seen from the north end of the building (from the Avenue “C” end). The main track went north along what is now Hart Road. There were also two spur tracks, one on each side. The one on the east side served a sawmill (near now HWY 46) and a packing house located behind the Flynt-Rehbinder Store (now the concrete block store.
The depot had two stories at one end with living quarters on the upper floor. The lower level of the depot had, as was common at that time, an entrance door for black folks and one for white folks. The room had a couple of wooden benches for waiting passengers. The higher single floor section of the building had wider doors and was level with the train boxcars so that wooden trolleys could be used to load and unload shipped items.
At the height of train traffic in Geneva, there were daily: one or two passenger trains, a log train from the Osceola Cypress Mill, and several “bean trains” which passed through carrying vegetables from the south Florida farms to northern markets. Each train was known by its own whistle so everyone knew which one was coming. The coming of the mail was cause for a social gathering in Geneva with townsfolk waiting daily to see what important mail was being delivered.
The railroad continued service until Hwy 46 was completed in 1946. With the lack of freight and the new roads and trucks, the railroad stopped in 1947 and the tracks and depot were removed.
