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(rshsdepot) Gordonsville, VA

Former depot gets new home, mission
April 10, 2004 1:13 am

By ROBIN KNEPPER
Freight station to welcome tourists in Gordonsville
You've got to hand it to those historic-preservation folks. Someone offers
them something old and they'll take it--even if it means that they have to
pick it up and tote it home.

Easier said than done, especially when the relic being offered is a
75-foot-long freight-depot building that is not in very good shape.

CSX, the freight line that runs through the town of Gordonsville (but
doesn't stop there anymore), wanted to tear down the old eyesore. But the
company agreed to give it away--on the condition that it be moved at least
50 feet away from the railroad tracks.

Historic Gordonsville Inc., the nonprofit group that owns and operates the
Exchange Hotel next door to the old depot, wanted the building. So it worked
with the town of Gordonsville, whose leaders want to promote tourism and
civic attractiveness, to secure a federal grant to move the depot 125 feet
to its new home.

That happened this week. Inch by inch, Ayers House Movers of Fredericksburg
dragged the creaky old depot from its former location at the edge of the
railroad tracks to a site a bit closer to the Exchange Hotel.

Sharon Compton, an anthropologist who is vice president of Historic
Gordonsville Inc., was one of many interested spectators. She explained that
HGI operates the old Exchange Hotel as a Civil War museum that focuses on
medical history.

It was built in 1860, she said, as a hotel to serve railroad passengers. It
got its name from its being located where the north-south and east-west rail
lines crossed and passengers exchanged one train for another.

That's also one of the reasons the town of Gordonsville has always been
known as a crossroads town.

The Confederate Army thought the hotel would be a great spot for a receiving
hospital and before the war was over 75 additional structures were built on
the grounds to care for the wounded. None of those still exist, but
excavation is planned for the future.

By 1973, passenger service through Gordonsville (Richmond to Charlottesville
and Orange to Charlottesville) was dropped and only freight service
survived. In time, even the freight trains quit stopping.

The passenger depot had been torn down and the freight depot was next on the
list. Railroad history was fast leaving Gordonsville.

But the depot has been saved and Historic Gordonsville Inc. has big plans
for the building. It will rebuild the old depot and use the space for
offices, a gift shop and exhibit space. The group hopes the depot will focus
attention on the town's railroad history.

To reach ROBIN KNEPPER: rknepper_@_earthlink.net
http://www.freelancestar.com/News/FLS/2004/042004/04102004/1326908

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Copyright 2004 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.


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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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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #891
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org