Fire forces evacuation of L&N Train Depot downtown

Employees of the Pennyroyal Arts Council, who had their offices in the depot, moved to the Alhambra Theatre.

Hopkinsville firefighters were called to the L&N Train Depot downtown at about 12:20 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 15, to extinguish a blaze that appeared to be burning in an exterior wall or below floor level.

Hopkinsville firefighters search for the source of a fire at the L&N Train Depot on East Ninth Street. (Hoptown Chronicle photo by Jennifer P. Brown)

The depot on East Ninth Street houses the Pennyroyal Arts Council’s offices.

No one was hurt. As firefighters continued to investigate the fire, arts council staff carried out computers, files, artwork and historic artifacts.

The cause of the fire was not immediately determined.

Within a few hours of the fire, arts council employees moved their operations to the Alhambra Theatre, which the county owns and the arts council manages.

The city of Hopkinsville owns the old train depot. 

Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.