(rshsdepot) Loris, SC

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

From yesterday's Sun News.


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

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Train Depot Relocation Steams Ahead in Loris

Feb. 9--LORIS -- Even though it's been slow going, the relocation of the 
city's train depot to the down town area is on track, organizers said.
Nearly two years ago, Loris Civitan Club members organized to move the 
historical depot to a central location in town and restore it as a museum. 
The land was secured through a lease with the city and the depot donated by 
its current owner from his tobacco, soybean and corn farm just outside of 
town.

No outward visible signs of the progress are available, but Frank McIntosh, 
club co-chairman of the committee to restore the depot, said drawings for 
the site plan are nearly complete.

"It's moving along silently and with behind-the-scenes-type stuff," McIntosh 
said.

"Before we can really move that thing, we have to have a site plan. We'll 
have to build a foundation first; and before we can build the foundation, we 
have to know what the building is going to look like." The building will be 
moved to a plot near City Hall, and the project joins the ranks of other 
depot renovation projects including one in Myrtle Beach where organizers 
restored the 1937 city depot.

S.F. Horton, a charter member of the Loris Civitan Club, donated the depot 
after club members voted in April 2003 to build a city museum and decided 
the old depot building would be perfect to house it. At that time, Horton 
said he bought the building soon after purchasing his farm in 1952. He paid 
$400 for the building and $400 for it to be moved to his farm off Red Bluff 
Road.

Some officials think the depot was built in the early 1900s, probably about 
the time Loris incorporated in 1902 and was often called the Gate City, 
which referred to its being the first town on the railroad south of North 
Carolina.

"We are doing it to give a focal point for Loris and to give people a reason 
to come and visit Loris," said Joyce Sammons, club president. "We are also 
doing it for our community, our children this our heritage." Officials hope 
to move the depot later this year, but that will take much coordination to 
lower electricity, telephone and cable lines to bring the building into 
town.

"There's a lot more to moving a building than people would think," McIntosh 
said. "If you can't see bricks and mortar, you feel like things aren't 
getting done. We're doing the nitty-gritty work right now." That work 
includes a capital fund-raising campaign, which will begin soon, officials 
said.

"What we really need is some money," he said.

Club members will soon make presentations to area businesses and other civic 
clubs about the project to generate interest and funding, Sammons said.

"It's moving right along and looking better and better," she said. "We've 
gotten several of our major members of the community who have said yes we 
want to hear more about this."

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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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