(rshsdepot) Southern Pines, NC

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

From today's Pilot.

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

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Depot Shines for Big Day


BY SARA LINDAU

Something old that's new again sits by the railroad tracks in downtown 
Southern Pines, and it will receive a lot of important visitors on Tuesday.

It's the 106-year-old Southern Pines passenger train depot between New 
Hampshire and Connecticut avenues. At least 200 people are expected to 
attend a ribbon cutting and grand opening to mark the completion of a major 
restoration and rejuvenation project. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m.

Southern Pines owns the depot. The N.C. Department of Transportation Rail 
Division oversaw the restoration and renovation project, the first 
significant work on the station in more than 50 years. The NCDOT came to the 
rescue when an $800,000 congressional allocation to Amtrak for the 
renovation fell through.

The project finally became a reality following years of fighting through 
bureaucratic red tape and working out arrangements between Southern Pines 
and CSX for the town to assume ownership of the depot.

Residents have a mixture of nostalgia and hope for the depot and the 
downtown.

Before, the depot had become an eyesore in the downtown, with chipping white 
paint and rotting wood on its exterior. The paved parking area was broken 
and filled with potholes.

The building has been repainted in a mellow, off-white color with forest 
green trim. The depot has a new roof and attractive benches and landscaping.

The depot took on its present outlines in 1948. That's the last time CSX, 
which used to own the structure, made any major repairs on the building and 
the brick freight station farther north between Connecticut and Vermont 
avenues. The town owns both buildings.

Some, such as the Town Council and members of the downtown business 
association, are already looking forward to using the newly beautified depot 
as a focal point to draw visitors downtown.

Some want a visitors' center and a museum put in the space that won't be 
taken up by the passenger waiting room and another area that Amtrak wants 
open for its own use. Some on the council want to rent out space in the 
depot to a desirable tenant to help the town offset its maintenance expense 
in the future.

Patrick Simians, director of the DOT's Rail Division, and David King, deputy 
transportation secretary, are in charge of the ribbon cutting.

U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, a Greensboro Republican who represents Moore County, 
could be on hand. Coble helped expedite the final stages of the town's 
acquiring title to the building from CSX railroad for $1 after years of 
delay in transferring title. The complicated bureaucratic process involved 
Amtrak passenger train service and numerous lawyers. The Amtrak Silver Star 
stops twice a day at the depot on its New York-Miami route.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony will be outdoors at the Connecticut Avenue end 
of the station, where a concrete platform stands above street level.

The town has invited the Pinecrest High School band and the school's ROTC 
color guard, state legislators, mayors and officials from surrounding towns, 
and state transportation leaders, including G.R. Kindley of Rockingham who 
represents Moore County on the state Board of Transportation.

'Vital Role' in History

"Like so many communities, the railroad played a vital role in the history 
of Southern Pines and the community's development," King said. "We're 
pleased that the station will once again serve as a comfortable and 
welcoming place for those residents returning home or visitors coming to 
play golf."

The Raleigh and Augusta Railroad built the train station in 1899. Southern 
Pines was among many resort towns that sprang up along the railroad, 
providing Northern visitors a warm place to vacation.

Pinehurst founder James W. Tufts even had an electric trolley transporting 
his guests to and from The Carolina hotel and the Southern Pines depot for a 
while.

Clippings and pictures from 1897 show a makeshift station with a corncrib 
type structure used for baggage. The train stopped then north of the present 
site, on property where the old Piney Woods Inn was located, near the 
present Calvary Christian School.

Three thousand passengers a year climb on and off the Silver Star at 
Southern Pines. But the station was shut down for most of 2004, when the 
state was ready to use the funds to restore and repair it.

The Silver Star's northbound train is scheduled to stop at 7:10 a.m. daily 
on its way to New York. The southbound Silver Star makes a stop at 9:03 p.m. 
on its way to Miami.

Amtrak, the subsidized national train service, is rarely on schedule, 
though.

Repeat passengers who aren't in a hurry seem tolerant of having to wait for 
it, sometimes, for several hours.

"We are looking forward to the grand opening and the opportunity to 
recognize those who helped make the station renovation possible," said 
Southern Pines Mayor Frank Quis. "It will also give people a chance to tour 
the interior and learn more of how the station will be used."

Carolina Contractors Inc. of Cheraw, S.C., began work last summer under the 
state's historic depot restoration project that turns small stations all 
over North Carolina into polished, facelifted gems resembling their historic 
selves.

The work included upgrading the heating, ventilating and air conditioning 
system, new plumbing and electrical systems. The contractors preserved as 
much of the original building materials as they could, including tile 
flooring, cleaning and polishing it all.

The station has a new roof, and a newly cleaned and repaired outdoor canopy, 
with bright copper trim.

'Point of Origin'

The Southern Pines Business Association is well aware of the importance of 
this historic focal point in keeping the historic shops and other businesses 
viable in their own very old buildings.

"The Train Station is centrally located and has acted as a point of origin 
for visitors to this area since it was originally built," the association 
board wrote in a November 2004 letter to David White, director of buildings 
and grounds for Southern Pines. "We would like to see this tradition 
continue."

The letter points out "at this time visitors to our town have no central 
place to learn about what is available to them in the way of historic, 
cultural or shopping experiences."

The board wants to partner with the town and other organizations to have a 
welcome center located in the depot and provide "a space that visitors could 
access and learn about our community."

The Southern Pines depot is one of only a few in this area still functioning 
as a depot, DOT spokesperson Julia Jarema said.

It's also the only "streamliner era" station in the state, she said. In the 
1930s, '40s and '50s, the fast, coast-to-coast passenger trains were 
comfortable, luxurious ways to travel long distances before Americans began 
using cars and commercial airlines so frequently.

"It was unique for us to be restoring a mid-century station to its original 
appearance," said Craig Newton, the senior project engineer. "Most have been 
turn-of-the-20th century stations.

"The project has been a big success. It was bidded, the contract awarded, 
and the work done in just under a year."

The project came in under budget, at $770,000. The savings will be put to 
other use in a separate Rail Division project.

Project architect Jon Zellweger found a dormer window with fanlight about 
four feet long and over two feet deep in the huge attic.

He also found a six-foot long, hand-operated baggage cart stored in a 
long-closed part of the building. The NCDOT will turn these historic 
treasures over to Southern Pines to put on permanent display here.

In researching the depot's pre-1948 history, Zellweger discovered the depot 
was once painted mustard yellow with purple trim, he said.

The DOT decided to retain the 1948-style appearance for the restoration 
work. The present facility actually encloses and covers the original depot, 
Newton said.

"If somebody wanted to go back and recreate the depot as it was in the early 
part of the century, it's there," he said.

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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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