Casa Amarilla (in English: "Yellow House") was a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

in the district of

La Boca La Boca (; "the Mouth", probably of the Matanza River) is a neighborhood (''Barrios of Buenos Aires, barrio'') of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. Its location near the Port of Buenos Aires meant the neighbourhood became a melting pot of ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, built and operated by the Buenos Aires and Ensenada Port Railway. Its name was inspired on Irish Admiral William Brown's house, built in the same district and painted in yellow. Brown was one of the heroes of

Argentine War of Independence The Argentine War of Independence () was a secessionist civil war (until 1816) fought from 1810 to 1818 by Argentine patriotic forces under Manuel Belgrano, Juan José Castelli, Martín Miguel de Güemes, Martin Miguel de Guemes and José de ...

leading the

Argentine Navy The Argentine Navy (ARA; ). This forms the basis for the navy's ship prefix "ARA". is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with the Argentine Army, Army and the Argentine ...

History

In 1812, William Brown (who had arrived to the Río de la Plata three years later) bought a field in

district at the South of

city. On those fields he built a house on Martín García Avenue. He moved there with his family in 1813 and the house would be soon nicknamed ''Casa Amarilla'' (''Yellow House'') because of its color. In 1857 the

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires, officially the Buenos Aires Province, is the largest and most populous Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of the province an ...

Legislature promulgated Law N° 147 that granted a concession to build a railway from Buenos Aires to Ensenada in La Plata Partido. The works were carried out by Buenos Aires and Ensenada Port Railway (BA&EP) that made its inaugural trip on September 1, 1865, with a 5-km length. It started in

Central Station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

, placed along with

Casa Rosada The ''Casa Rosada'' (), , is the president of the Argentine Republic's official workplace, located in Buenos Aires. The palatial mansion is known officially as ''Casa de Gobierno'' ("House of Government" or "Government House"). Normally, the pre ...

, running over Paseo Colón through a

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...

until it deviated to Casa Amarilla before crossing Riachuelo to Ensenada. When the Buenos Aires Central Station was destroyed by fire in February 1897, the BA&EP moved its terminus to Venezuela station (placed on the junction of Paseo Colón and Venezuela) during a brief period of time before moving again to Casa Amarilla. In 1898 the BA&E was acquired by rival company

Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway The Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway (BAGS) () was one of the ''Big Four'' Indian gauge, broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The company was founded by Edward Lumb in 1862 and the f ...

that took over the line. The BAGSR closed Casa Amarilla station to passengers in 1910, although the station continued operating

freight In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in ...

services.

With the closing of Casa Amarilla, the BAGSR set Constitución station as its new terminus for passengers. In 1923 Dutch company

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

opened a

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work (physics), work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chem ...

depot on the fields where Casa Amarilla had been. The depot received and stored the

tank car A tank car (International Union of Railways (UIC): tank wagon) or tanker is a type of railroad car (UIC: railway car) or rolling stock designed to transport liquid and gaseous commodity, commodities. History Timeline The following major event ...

s sent from the company's

refinery A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value. Types of refineries Different types of refineries ...

Dock Sud Dock Sud is a town of Avellaneda Partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It forms part of the urban agglomeration of Greater Buenos Aires. The area is characterized by its predominantly working-class background, with many of its inhabitant ...

. On those fields also operated a

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

terminus and a potato market (opened in 1946), which was closed in the 1960s. A replica of Admiral Brown's house was built near to its original location, being opened on June 22, 1983, to commemorate the 206th anniversary of Brown's birth. The house currently hosts the Department of Naval Historic Studies and the "Instituto Browniano", and has a library and a room for multiple uses.

Historic operators

Bibliography

References

{{coord, 34.6311, S, 58.3656, W, source:wikidata, display=title Railway stations in Buenos Aires Railway stations in Argentina opened in 1865 Railway stations in Argentina closed in 1910 1865 establishments in Argentina Defunct railway stations in Argentina Railway stations in Argentina closed in the 20th century