(rshsdepot) Terry, MS

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

i

Depot dream on track



a.. Friends of Terry plan revitalization via restoration
By Julie Whitehead
Special to The Clarion-Ledger

Betty Davis of Terry speaks with pride about the old railroad depot, brought
back to Terry, that Illinois Central Railroad built in the early 1880s.

"This is the direct line from Chicago to New Orleans," Davis said of the
track that still runs through the town. "They had five shipping sheds beside
the depot then."

About 10 years ago, a group called Friends of Terry was formed to support
city projects such as reclamation of the Terry Depot, removed from along the
tracks in the 1950s and placed in Parham Bridges Park in Jackson.

Davis, a charter member, aided in lobbying the Hinds County Board of
Supervisors to bring the depot back.

The building now rests in the curve of U.S. 51, and the Friends of Terry
plan "to put it back as close to what it used to look like with all the
amenities," said Bobbie Davis, no relation to Betty Davis.

"Terry, back in the '30s and '40s, was a truck-crop area," said Bobbie
Davis, president of the Friends of Terry. Vegetables were shipped to
northern markets daily.

After raising $44,000 for the restoration, the group received a $250,000
grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation to fix up the
building, which will house a museum, a community meeting room in what used
to be the freight area, and a modern kitchen. Community events such as a
dinner theater and other musical productions have been staged to raise
funds.

The Terry Depot project is expected to aid in downtown redevelopment
efforts. Like many communities in the metro area, the city center needs more
people and businesses to continue thriving.

"All of the countryside has built up. We don't really have any rural areas
now," Betty Davis said.

Merrie Anderson, branch manager for the Terry branch of the Jackson-Hinds
Library System, said the town retains a great deal of its attractiveness in
the residential areas around the Town of Terry Park.

"The houses along Cunningham are very architecturally interesting. It's all
still very quaint," Anderson said.

That's not to say Terry doesn't have new buildings and businesses coming in.
The town, population 600, has seen the opening of a New Deal Grocery, a
Dollar General, a new building for Union Planters Bank and a postal facility
in the past few years, Betty Davis said.

"Most of the growth is in Byram, but it's moving over here," Betty Davis
said. "We're the last little town in Hinds County."


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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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