(rshsdepot) Harpers Ferry, WV

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From today's Journal News.
 
Bernie Wagenblast 
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
 
Harpers Ferry dedicates train  station


A thunderous sound effect in the form of a CSX train roaring by accompanied  
remarks from Mayor James Addy during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 
reopening  of the renovated historic train station in Harpers Ferry on Saturday.  
Addy, who was one of a trio of guest speakers on hand to dedicate the  
facility following its $2.2 million renovation, said the historic community was  a “
great place and in the heart of the history” of the country.  
Don Campbell, superintendent for the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park,  
said the train station has “served as a sentinel” greeting visitors to West  
Virginia for more than 100 years. He said the train station is one of the 
first  scenes to greet people commuting via train from the east into the state, 
and  that it will serve as a tourism flagship for those riding MARC and Amtrak. 
 
In the past 40 years, the train station fell into disrepair with the  facility
’s foundation and tower gone and a 14-inch sag in the roof line,  Campbell 
said.  
“Time had taken its toll on the building,” he said.  
The renovation was completed with the help of $1.89 million in federal  
funding secured by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., as well as state grant funds.  
Marsha B. Wassel, public relations officer for the Harpers Ferry National  
Historical Park, said Lumus Construction of Woburn, Mass., was the main  
contractor for the restoration project.  
“They are specialists in historic restoration,” she said.  
Wassel said a great deal of detail went into the research for the restoration 
 project.  
Today, the 2,500-square-foot train station includes a waiting room, two  
handicap-accessible bathrooms, a ticket office, meeting room and an exhibit room  
complete with a fireplace. Displayed on the walls of the exhibit room is a  
history of All Aboard: The Baltimore & Ohio Harpers Ferry Railroad Station.  
The dedication ceremony also included a presentation by Carlos Avery, who  
gave a biographical sketch of E. Francis Baldwin, the architect of the original  
train station, as well as 135 other train stations and more than 500 
buildings.  
Avery is the author of “E. Francis Baldwin, Architect: The B&O,  Baltimore, 
and Beyond.” 



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