Williamsburg depot restored

Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine, Jul/Aug 2002 by Lyon, Ed

Major Program Marks Rededication of Williamsburg Passenger Station as a Transportation Center

Add another crown jewel to the evergrowing roster of former-C&O passenger stations which have been preserved and renovated. Williamsburg, Virginia's, Colonial Revival-style station, opened on October 3, 1935, was formally rededicated as the Williamsburg Transportation Center during a May 23, 2002, ceremony attended by more than 200 dignitaries and local residents.

The Williamsburg project is the latest success story in a series of C&O station renovations which already include Huntington, Ashland, Russell, and Cincinnati, among others. Slated to follow next year are Richmond's stately "Grand Dame"-Main Street Station-along with the Newport News Lee Hall depot built in the early 1880s. C&O depot restorations in the planning stage in Virginia include Norge and Providence Forge.

Present at the Williamsburg event were officials from Amtrak, Virginias Department of Transportation, Williamsburg City Council, the College of William and Mary, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and state and local high-speed-rail advocacy groups. Also participating in the two-hour program and reception were the Fifes and Drums of Colonial Williamsburg and the city's Police and Fire Honor Guard.

Keynote speaker Whitt Clement, Virginia secretary of transportation, praised the city for its "wonderful example of partnership" in completing the Transportation Center. The $1.6 million project restored the 5,700-square-foot building and 1.6-acre site to create a true multi-modal regional transport center, serving as a hub for both rail and bus transportation. Taxi service and car rental also are available.

The ceremony's host, Williamsburg Mayor Jeanne Zeidler, touted the depot as "the first comprehensive transportation center in Virginia." She also called Williamburg a "small city with a very big reputation."

Colin G. Campbell, president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, agreed. "This is a major and necessary step for the community and visitors," he noted. "It is a great occasion for the future of the Historic Triangle [Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg]."

The Center features elaborate brick walkways, short and long-term parking and new landscaping. Only one major update was omitted: the former double-track main line through western and downtown Williamsburg has not been reinstated by CSX. Double track, however, resumes about one-mile east of the Center.

But the jewel in the crown is the building itself "It's a Colonial Revival structure done about the same time as the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg," noted Tom Tingle, of Guernsey-Tingle Architects AIM, who designed the project.

The Newport News Daily Press, in a lengthy May 20 editorial, commented that "...the Williamsburg station...looks great, with nice landscaping, and much spiffed-up facilities..."

Costing $240,000 (much of which was paid by the Colonial Williamsburg restoration project), the present facility was the third in the city's history. "Stylewise, it's somewhat remarkable," Mr. Tingle added. "It was built by the railway to be compatible with the rest of the area."

Designed by C&O Railway Chief Engineer C.W Johns and built by James Fox and Sons of Richmond, the station originally opened with no formal program. As the first morning train pulled in, it was boarded by the Rev. L. Peyton Little, local Baptist minister, who purchased the first ticket at the new location. Through a coincidence, the first freight unloaded contained material destined for the CW Restoration.

In its edition of October 4, 1935, the Virginia Gazette's headline termed the new depot "...Most Commodious and Is Modern in Every Respect..." The article noted that the station itself was 141.5 feet in length and 27 feet wide. A 300-foot butterfly shed for passengers ran parallel to the tracks.

Recalling Williamsburg's rail history, Mr. Campbell noted that travellers stepped off trains in 1882 at the city's first stationa two-story wood-frame structure located at the end of North England St. in what are now the gardens of the Governor's Palace.

Wood gave way to brick in 1907 when the C&O once again seized an historic moment-the Jamestown Exposition, the 300th anniversary of the first English settlement in America. The lavish fair took place in Norfolk, not at Jamestown Island and its environs. But the railway chose to observe the celebration by constructing a substantial station in Williamsburg to serve travellers visiting Jamestown on their way to and from the Exposition.

When the restoration of Williamsburg began in the 1920s, the presence of a train station located on the Palace grounds was a challenge to that concept, to put it mildly, but the C&O agreed to move its tracks further north to the current location along Lafayette St.- then called Railroad St- and to erect a new station on the site in 1935.

C&O owned and operated the building until 1980. The railroad then sold the property to a Newport News couple, who in turn deeded it by a combination gift and purchase to Colonial Williamsburg a year later. The city acquired the station in 2000 for about $450,000.