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(rshsdepot) Franklin, VA
Restoration will turn Franklin's train depot into visitors center
By PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, The Virginian-Pilot
=A9 July 15, 2002=20
FRANKLIN -- Civic leaders, following Suffolk's lead, will use a=20
$1=2E1 million federal grant to restore Main Street's 1800s train depot=20=
and give it new life as a visitors center and development office=2E=20
Jamie Weist, Franklin's public works director, said the restoration=20
could cost up to $400,000=2E=20
The remaining grant funds will go toward parking, streetscaping and=20
a new park along Main Street=2E=20
CSX Corp=2E, owner of the depot and wooden freight station across=20
the tracks, plans to donate the approximately 1,200-square-foot=20
depot to the city=2E The company will tear down the 100-year-old=20
freight station and build a small office building at the site=2E=20
``I see everything coming into place to begin by the fall,''=20
said Rob Shinn, CSX vice president=2E=20
The new structure will be architecturally compatible with the=20
downtown historic district, he said=2E=20
The depot's arched windows and overhanging roof lend the tired=20
old building the appeal of a toy train station=2E But time has=20
taken a heavy toll: The depot is missing its original cupola,=20
from which approaching trains were spotted, its windows are=20
boarded up, and the paint is chipping from its white-painted brick=2E=20
In September 1991, the floods of Hurricane Floyd further damaged=20
the depot and freight station=2E=20
The train depot has a significant place in the town's history=2E=20
By the mid-1800s, Franklin was a major link between the railroads=20
and steamboats, which plied the Blackwater and Chowan rivers=2E=20
The Seaboard & Roanoke, the Seaboard Line and the Portsmouth &=20
Roanoke railroads carried passengers and freight to and through=20
the thriving town on their way to Portsmouth, Norfolk, Petersburg=20
and towns in North Carolina=2E=20
Ash Cutchin, a local businessman, historian and member of the=20
citizen advisory committee working on the depot project, said=20
he remembers catching trains at the Franklin station before it=20
closed around 1966=2E=20
Local history mixes with myth, clouding specific dates and=20
perpetuating debatable stories such as one about a Federal=20
cannonball supposedly lodged for generations in a freight=20
station beam
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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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