Prosser / Fowl River

Fowl River, originally known as Prosser, was located about a half-mile to the south of South Orchard.

In this enlargement at right, you can just make out a location where the water tower may have stood.  The station would have been to the north of the this.

The image at left shows Prosser Station as it appeared early in its life, possibly 1900 - 1905. After the L&N renamed their Fowl River stop to Theodore, the Bay Shore quickly adopted the now-available name and changed Prosser to become the new Fowl River stop, probably at the same time as the renovation work. By no later than 1915, it had become a true station stop with the addition of the larger freight storage room.

Note the similarity of this design with the station located at Lloyd's. At the time the station was built, it was one of the smaller combination stations along the line.

Fowl River station as it appeared after the renovation, circa 1922. Note the additional freight holding area on this end of the building. The new freight storage room was built on the frame of the old freight platform, and new siding was attached to make the appearance uniform.

The building retained the roof design from Prosser and was identical to those at Lloyd's and Laurendine. The other end of the building likely retained the original station master's office and the passenger waiting room layout.

Both pictures have the photographer looking south toward Delchamps and Coden. Theodore and Mobile would be behind the photographer.

The water tower at Fowl River handled the northbound trains heading back to Mobile. This image shows the tower as it appeared in 1915. The photographer in this image is facing north, and is standing with his back to Fowl River Road, possibly 200' from the road and no closer than 100' to the tower.

The storage tank for the tower was 20' in diameter and 12' in height, and stood on brick piers 24" x 24" square. Woods used in construction were yellow pine and cypress.

The pump house for filling the water tower. Water was drawn from Fowl River through a 4" suction line, and discharged into the tank through a 3" line.

The steam boiler providing the pumping power was built by Fairbanks-Morse, while the pump itself was from Smith Vaile.