(rshsdepot) Salisbury, Md. Union Station for sale

["Alexander D. Mitchell IV" <LNER4472_@_bcpl.net>]

Shortcut to: http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060121/LIFESTYLE/601210319/1024/lifestyle 

Landmark for sale
By Brice Stump 
Daily Times Staff Writer 

SALISBURY -- It isn't often a railroad station comes on the market, but Salisbury's Union Station is up for sale. 
Since 1987 it was home to English Sign Co., owned and operated by the late Kent English. It is now being sold by his wife, Robin, according to real estate agent Henry Hanna, who is handling the listing. 
Union Station, just off Route 13 North along Railroad Avenue and near Isabella Street, was the pride of the city when it was built in 1914. It served the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk railroads as well as the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic railways, moving freight and passengers from across Delmarva in all four directions. 
Hamilton "Ham" Fox, 86, of near Salisbury, remembers riding the trains as a boy, enjoying the unique seats that turned 180 degrees to allow passengers to face the direction in which the train traveled. He remembers, too, the coal-burning locomotives produced plenty of soot to soil clothes and get in the eyes. 
Union Station was not the first station in Salisbury. When the early Eastern Shore Railroad was in operation, it extended service from Delmar to Salisbury and southward after the Civil War. Soon Crisfield and Pocomoke City had train service, and by 1884, tracks were laid to Cape Charles. 
Over the years hundreds of thousands of passengers passed through Salisbury at the station, which allowed many city companies to open, expand and prosper because of the freight services the lines provided. 
In 1914, the station's first ticket agent was Rollie W. Hastings. Ironically, it was Hastings who also sold the last ticket to a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger when service ended in 1958. Throughout the years, the building has managed to keep almost all of its original architectural details. That, said railroadiana collector Keith Short of Salisbury, is a rare miracle. 
Short, a member of the National Railway Historical Society's Delmarva chapter (based in Parksley), said often stations are totally remodeled, stripped or torn down. He has one of two original iron signs bearing the Salisbury name that greeted passengers upon their arrival to the city. 
The brick structure lists for $195,000 in a zoned commercial area and offers 4,182 square feet of warehouse space. The building is situated on a 29,000 square foot parcel. Hanna said he has had nibbles from several potential buyers, one of whom is considering putting a restaurant into the building.
=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

------------------------------

End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1290
********************************

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