Built in 1913, the Spanish Revival style brick depot for the Texas Midland Railroad served Cooper and Delta County. Although the railroad dealt mainly in freight, the depot focused on passenger service as a stop on the 130-mile line between Paris and Ennis. It is a rare surviving Texas Midland Railroad structure and one of only two remaining depots from that line still standing. The railroad's arrival in 1895 brought a dramatic increase in population and commerce to the isolated town of about 300 residents. By the following year, Cooper's population had grown to more than 1,000, and during the next three decades it rose steadily until reaching 2,563 in 1925. The Great Depression and the end of Texas Midland operations in 1934 halted that growth, after which the population remained relatively steady. The depot stood vacant from the closing of the Texas Midland rail line until World War II. After the United States entered the war, local resident Harry Patterson opened a cannery in the building, where workers canned chicken sent overseas in troop rations and marked the cans with the stamp '4P.' After the war, Depoyster Lumber Company briefly operated on the property before relocating in 1967. That year, Harry Patterson bought the depot and dedicated it as a local history museum preserving the heritage of Cooper and Delta County.