Built in 1892 as one of three depots along the San Joaquin Valley Railroad, Tarpey Depot originally stood on the Tarpey Ranch just southeast of what is now the intersection of Ashlan and Clovis Avenues. Over time it served as a freight and passenger depot, the La Paloma Winery office, a post office, a polling place, and the office of Billings and Fine, real estate agents for the Tarpey Village development. It is the last remnant of the San Joaquin Valley Railroad, a 26 mile route from Fresno to present-day Friant that was built in 1891 and sold to Southern Pacific Railroad in 1893. Together with the 42 mile flume from Shaver Lake, built by the Fresno Flume and Irrigation Company and completed in 1894, the railroad helped provide the impetus for the founding of the City of Clovis.