(rshsdepot) Robbins, NC

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

From the Asheboro Courier Tribune.

Bernie Wagenblast
Transportation Communications Newsletter
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications

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ROBBINS - One of the first buildings in Robbins, the train depot is going to
be restored as a museum of transportation and history of northern Moore
County.

Phyllis Lambert, a counselor at Robbins Elementary School, is spearheading
the effort. It will be successful, Lambert said, because people love trains
and railroad memorabilia and Robbins was built around the railroad and the
trains that came through in the early 1900s when the Durham-Charlotte
railroad came through.

Lambert and the Historical, Educational and Cultural Committee has planned a
Dollars for the Depot Day on Saturday to raise the money they need to match
a grant from the N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT).

The town is required to raise $30,000 as its match to receive the $120,000
grant from the N.C. DOT. Lambert and George Kecatos wrote the grant and are
working on the committee with Jimmie Lee Lassiter and Cara Maness.

From 6 p.m. until midnight, the old depot at the corner of South Broad and
Middleton streets will come alive with music, dancing and entertainment.
There is no charge for all the fun. Barbecue and hot dogs will be sold.
Contributions for the depot will be gratefully accepted.

Entertainers scheduled are Clyde Auman and his bluegrass band; Tim McGraw
impersonator Tim Hare from Sanford; the Denise Stone Dancers; the Irish band
Cracken Crayee; and rock 'n' roll will be represented by Behind the Times.

Cracken Crayee is led by potter Michael Mahan of From the Ground Up Pottery
in Robbins.

Behind the Times is a band from Greensboro College fronted by Richard Hill.
Lambert was the high bidder at her Greensboro College alumni association
meeting for the band to appear at an event of the bidder's choice.

"Richard Hill is wonderful and the band is excited about what we want to do
here," Lambert said.

The Robbins Fire Department has a portable stage they will set up behind the
depot facing the parking lot.

For contributions of $100 or more, the contributor will get a woven tapestry
throw depicting landmarks in northern Moore County. The throws, woven by the
Riddle Company in Burlington, will also be available for sale.

Lambert said refurbishing the depot is a starting point for a tourist
attraction with a coffee shop, a pottery shop and a souvenir shop. It will
fit right in with the heritage tourism trend that other counties are
promoting.

The original depot building was a wooden structure built by John Lenning
from Pennsylvania. Lenning named the town Elise after his daughter, Lambert
said, and the town grew up around it. When the town of Elise applied for a
post office, the name Elise was already in use and the postal service
assigned the town the name of Hemp, which dismayed many townspeople. But
Hemp it was and the town was incorporated in 1935.

Early on, the Frye family built a mercantile store across the road and named
their son John Lenning Frye. Today, Lambert said, the John L. Frye Co. still
supplies 15 percent of the railroad cross-ties in the nation.

John L. Frye Jr. now runs the railroad cross-tie business and was a
long-time mayor of Robbins.

Lambert said everything to stock the store, from piece goods to sugar and
coffee, came to Elise on the train and mules hauled it across the street to
the store. The trains left loaded with cross-ties.

About 70 years ago, the wooden building was bricked and it will remain brick
in the restoration process.

The history of transportation will go all the way back to the Native
Americans whose transportation was canoes on the Deep River. Later, covered
wagons traveled the Plank Road from Fayetteville to Salem. They will all be
included in the transportation museum.

The town of Robbins began as Mechanics Hill in 1795 when Alexander Kennedy,
a Revolutionary War soldier, settled in the area and established a gun
factory.

The Scotch-Irish were the first settlers - and the first shoppers at the
Frye store - in northern Moore County. Gold-miners tried to strike it rich
in the Spies and Cabin Creek areas in the early 1800s.

In 1924, the first textile plant, Moore Mills was built. It was purchased by
Karl Robbins and renamed the Robbins Silk Mill.

Robbins' philanthropy was far reaching. He donated money to the schools and
churches, built playgrounds and parks, and funded the first water and waste
system in 1937. The Robbins family continues to support the town. In 1994,
the Robbins Foundation donated funds to help build a town library.

In 1943, the citizens changed the name of the town to Robbins to honor their
benefactor.

"We have a rich history in Robbins and northern Moore County that we need to
tell our story," Lambert said.

In her vision for the future, Lambert would love to see excursion trains
taking day trips to Seagrove and Star, which were also important stops along
the early railroads. That same vision has been mentioned in a heritage
tourism plan for Star.

"Schoolchildren could take day trips on a real train. That's something not
many people get to do these days," Lambert said.

If you can't go to the Dollars for the Depot festivities, you can mail a
tax-deductible contribution to Phyllis Lambert, P.O. Box 427, Robbins, N.C.
27325.

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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 #924
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org