Southern States

On a spring day in 1872 Samuel Noble, representing his family's firm, walked into the Charleston, SC office of Alfred Tyler, vice-president and general manager of the South Carolina Railroad. The two men drew up an agreement forming the Woodstock Iron Company. In April 1873, Furnace #1 was built on the 2000 acres they had purchased in Alabama. As the business and surrounding village grew, the proprietors (headed mainly by Samuel Noble) sought to create a perfect town, "The Model City". Cottages were constructed for the workers with yards and gardens, streets were laid out and lined with trees, a company store was provided, a farm was operated to provide food and dairy products. Churches and schools were built, all as a part of this prosperous, planned, but closed community. In 1879, Furnace #2 began production.

Anniston remained predominantly an iron town until 1881 when a second major industry was added: cotton textiles. The wives and children of the ironworkers furnished the labor for the cotton mill. When application was made to incorporate this village called Woodstock, it was discovered there already was a Woodstock, Alabama. The founding fathers settled on the name Anniston, in honor of Tyler’s wife, Annie. On July 3, 1883 during an official ceremony, Anniston was opened to the public. The first Anniston Newspaper, The Hot Blast, revealed an exciting tale of rapid, almost overnight growth following the opening of the community. Anniston became the first city in Alabama to be lighted with electricity in 1882, and was enjoying the convenience of telephones as early as 1884. Each year the list of industries, businesses, churches, and schools grew as people came to Anniston to live, work and prosper.

City of Anniston

The Anniston depot, a red brick classical revival structure, was designed by Milo R. Hanker for Southern Railway and built in 1925. The façade features a pediment over three large round-arched windows. Cream-colored stone is used for the base of the building and is also employed as trim around the windows and entryways. A marquee over the main doors protects passengers from inclement weather and is embellished with elaborate metalwork in the form of scrolls and curlicues. A true intermodal facility, the depot is also served by the city’s bus system and acts as the interchange point for all lines. In the future, city planners hope that intercity bus providers will also use the multimodal center.

Great American Stations

Birmingham Terminal Station was owned and operated by Birmingham Terminal Co. which was incorporated in 1905. Originally each of the tenants (Southern, Alabama Great Southern, Central of Georgia, St. Louis-San Francisco, Illinois Central) owned an equal amount of stock. The station had its grand opening April 6, 1909. Festivities included a balloon race, parade and speeches.

The Byzantine style structure was designed by P. Thornton Marye of Atlanta and cost $2 million to construct. The exterior was mottled brick with a terra-cotta roof and gray sandstone ornaments. A 100-foot high central dome was flanked by two 130-foot high towers. The 7,600 square foot main waiting room had walls covered up to 16 feet with gray Tennessee marble. The ceiling was constructed of four barrel vaults intersecting with a central dome 64 feet in diameter of terra-cotta tile. There were ten through loading tracks with two 780-foot long platforms and three 630-foot long platforms. Connecting the platforms with the station was a passenger subway 28 feet wide and nine feet high with two stairs to each platform and a stairway to the 5th Avenue subway. The original concrete platform sheds were later replaced by conventional butterfly sheds.

After reaching a high of 54 trains a day, traffic fell to 26 trains in 1960 and just nine (the City of Miami ran every other day) by January 1969. The Frisco (SL-SF) discontinued their last train to Birmingham in 1967 and Seaboard Coast Line exited when their Silver Comet was cut back to Atlanta in January 1969. The post office moved out of the station January 1, 1969. The Alabama Public Service Commission gave Birmingham Terminal Co. permission to tear down the station and replace it with a new (smaller) one. In September the lunch room and jewelry store closed and construction began on a new station. T.M. Burgin Demolition began tearing down the south wing (former postal facility) on September 22. Demolition was completed in 1970 by which time the new Terminal Station on Seventh Avenue was completed and opened. It utilized the outermost platform and loading tracks of the old station.

Plans for a new General Services Administration office building as well as a motel, other office buildings and parking facilities on the eleven acre site fell through. Birmingham Terminal Co. continued to operate the new station until Southern joined Amtrak in 1979 and the station's last train was moved to the Amtrak (ex-L&N) station. By that time Southern had bought out the other owners. Birmingham Terminal Co. was finally disolved June 1, 1986.

Southern Railway Depots - Volume 2 — Ralph Ward

Through the mid-20th century, Birmingham was the industrial giant of the American South. Formally organized in 1871, the town quickly became a commercial center because of the natural abundance of coal, iron ore and limestone within the area—all necessary ingredients for making steel. Its rapid growth as an industrial hub earned it the nickname, "the Magic City." In the later 20th century, its economy diversified: large-scale banking, insurance, medicine, publishing and biotechnology all have come to the city. Today, Birmingham is recognized as one of the top cities for income growth in the South.

Great American Stations

The site of the future City of Tuscaloosa on the "Fall Line" of the Black Warrior River had long been known to the various Native American tribes whose shifting fortunes brought them to West Alabama.

The river shoals at Tuscaloosa represented the southernmost site on the river which could be forded under most conditions. Inevitably, a network of Native American trails converged upon the place, the same network that in the first years of the 19th century began to lead a few intrepid white frontiersmen to the area. The pace of white settlement increased greatly after the War of 1812, and a small assortment of log cabins soon arose near the large Creek tribe village at the Fall Line of the river.

In honor of the legendary "Black Warrior," a great chief who had had a fateful encounter with explorer Hernando DeSoto centuries before somewhere in Southwest Alabama, the settlers named the place Tuscaloosa (from the Choctaw words "tushka" meaning warrior and "lusa" meaning black). In 1817 Alabama became a territory, and on Dec. 13, 1819 the territorial legislature incorporated the town of Tuscaloosa, exactly one day before Congress admitted Alabama to the Union as a state. Thus, the City of Tuscaloosa is one day older than the State of Alabama.

From 1826 to 1846 Tuscaloosa was the state capital of Alabama. The University of Alabama was established during this period in 1831. These developments, together with the region's growing economy, increased the number of the town's inhabitants to 4,250 by 1845, but after the departure of the capital to Montgomery, population fell to 1,950 in 1850.

City of Tuscaloosa

Located south of downtown, the Tuscaloosa depot sports a romantic castle-like bay with deep corbelling and a conical roof topped by a finial.

The one story brick Tuscaloosa station, located about a mile south of downtown, was built in 1911 for the Southern Railway as a replacement for a depot erected in 1873. In addition to an Amtrak waiting room, the station has office space occupied by Norfolk Southern Railway.

In May 2012, the Ceres Garden Club completed a cosmetic improvement project at the station in conjunction with the city’s Greensboro Avenue Beautification project. The garden club planted new shrubs and flowers, removed debris, painted the station and erected a flag pole. Amtrak installed new exterior benches and rebranded the signage on the depot.

Tuscaloosa, also the seat of Tuscaloosa County, sits on the Black Warrior River. The city was named after the Chocktaw chieftain, Tuscaloosa, which means “black warrior”. The river shoals in this area of western Alabama were the southern-most reliable ford on the river, and thus the natural convergence of many trails from early times.

Great American Stations

Tombigbee River

Length: 400 miles (644 kilometers)

The Tombigbee River in Mississippi and Alabama is formed by joining of the East Fork of Tombigbee River (rises in Prentiss County, northeast Mississippi, flows south past Fulton approximately 70 miles) and Oldtown Creek in north Monroe County in northeast Mississippi; flows south through Aberdeen Lake and Columbus Lake reservoirs, past Columbus, Mississippi. through Aliceville Lake reservoir on Mississippi-Alabama border, past Gainesville and Demopolis, Alabama. Here it receives the Black Warrior River from northeast above Demopolis Dam, and continues south through Cofferville Dam, past Jackson, joining the Alabama River approximately 30 miles North of Mobile to form the Mobile River. The Tombigbee is an important artery for manufactured goods. Dams and locks improve navigation on the river. The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway was completed in 1985 to add an additional link between the Mississippi River System and the Gulf coast for barge traffic. The Waterway replaces the river’s original channel in its mid-course, parallels channel to the east in its upper course, above Aberdeen Lake.

U.S. Rivers Information

The city of Meridian was born of and experienced its greatest growth in conjunction with railroads. Even famous native son Jimmie Rodgers worked on the railroad before becoming a pioneering country-music star. The city has capitalized on its railroading heritage in the development of the Union Station Multi-Modal Transportation Center (MMTC). The site selected for the MMTC project, the Depot Historic District, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and occupies four city blocks. Union Station accommodates several modes of passenger transportation, including Amtrak trains, Greyhound buses, and other providers of transit services.

Visit Meridian Mississippi

The renovated Amtrak station (also called Meridian Multi-Modal Transportation Center and locally Union Station) is part of the Meridian Downtown Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The original Union Station was completed in 1907 in Mission Revival style and at a cost of $250,000. It included a central tower and east and west wings along Front Street. The tower was demolished in 1940, and the west wing in 1966. The remaining east wing served as the Amtrak station prior to renovation.

Great American Stations

From its oak-lined streets to its lovely, turn-of-the-century homes, Laurel is a charming and gracious southern town. Located in the southeast region of Mississippi known as the Pine Belt, the city of Laurel was originally established in 1882. It flourished during the growth of the timber industry just over a century ago. In 1893, a decade after the railroad opened the region for large-scale timber production, Eastman-Gardiner & Company opened the first giant lumber mill. The Eastman-Gardiner mill was soon followed by many others, making Laurel a very large milling town. By the early 1900’s, Laurel milled and shipped more yellow pine than anywhere else in the world.

City of Laurel

Located in the Mississippi Pine Belt, Laurel was established in 1882 and flourished with the lumber industry. The historic 1913 depot includes a waiting room and community meeting space.

Restoration of the Laurel depot came about as a collaboration between the city of Laurel and Leadership Jones County, a community-based service group. Leadership Jones County petitioned the city to obtain the station facility from Norfolk Southern Railway. When the city took it over in 1994, the structure was sound, but the interior significantly decayed. The building was open to vandalism and considered an eyesore at that time.

Restoration of this 1913 brick structure included functional redesign of the existing rooms and adding a waiting area, replicating and repairing as many of the historic characteristics as possible. The original terrazzo floor in the main room was restored, turn-of-the-century style light fixtures were installed, and the original wooden benches repaired. The building now serves as not only a working passenger station but also as a community meeting place. Rehabilitation was completed in 1998, and the next year the project won an award of excellence from the Mississippi Heritage Trust.

Great American Stations

The 14,000-square foot brick Hattiesburg Southern Railway station was originally completed in 1910. One of the larger and more elaborate surviving passenger depots in Mississippi, the station has been in continuous use since it first opened. It was built in an Italian Renaissance style with a hipped roof originally done in clay tile and tin, and was noted for its 924-foot canopy, which was partially removed in 1958.

Great American Stations

Picayune is a precious coin in the purse of the south.

Picayune is a rare name for a unique place. Search the world and the only city named Picayune is found in South Mississippi. The appeal of the area is obvious to anyone who visits the area. However, how Picayune got its name traces back to a Spanish coin and a well-renowned newspaper still published today. When the railroad came through in the 1880’s the then known community of Hobolochitto turned to one of its prestigious residents Eliza Jane Poitevent Nicholson, better known by her pen name “Pearl Rivers,” to name the area. Mrs. Nicholson was the owner and publisher of the New Orleans Daily Picayune named after a Spanish coin called a “picayune”. She chose to name the city after her beloved newspaper. Today the paper is still published but is now called the Times-Picayune. In 1904, Picayune was incorporated as a township under the name given by Poitevent. Seventeen years later Picayune was incorporated as a city.

City of Picayune

The Picayune station was built with the look of a classic early-twentieth century passenger depot, including a porte-cochere and waiting room. The previous station was an open waiting area near the platform, similar to a gazebo. The cost to construct the center was mostly funded through a grant from the Federal Transit Administration, which paid for 80 percent of the estimated $875,000. The remaining 20 percent was paid for by the city. The ribbon cutting and grand opening for the Picayune Intermodal Transportation Center took place on October 16, 2008.

Great American Stations

Slidell, Louisiana was founded around 1882 during construction of a major new railroad from New Orleans to Meridian, Mississippi, connecting there with Cincinnati, Ohio and eventually with New York, NY. The New Orleans and Northeastern (N.O.N.E.) Railroad established a building camp at first high ground north of Lake Pontchartrain which eventually grew into the city. Slidell was chartered as a town in 1888 by the Louisiana legislature.

Sometime prior to Slidell’s formal incorporation in 1888, its first streets were laid out in a grid pattern, mostly east of the railroad, running three blocks along the road by four blocks deep. Bonfouca Street, now Bayou Lane, lay in the short stretch between the railroad and the bayou. East of the tracks, the north-south streets were Bayou (now Front), First, Second, Third and Fourth. The east-west streets were Fremaux, Erlanger, Bouscaren and Cousin.

Erlanger, slightly wider than the others and designated as an avenue, was named by Baron Frederick Erlanger, head of the banking syndicate which financed the railway. Baron Erlanger named the town for his deceased father-in-law, John Slidell, who had been a prominent state, national and confederate political figure. Col. Leon J. Fremaux, a prominent Louisiana engineer and planner, drew the original plans for Slidell and named Fremaux Avenue for himself. Bouscaren Street was named for G. Bouscaren, the chief engineering officer of the railroad. Cousin Street took its name from the locally prominent Cousin family.

In the thirty or so years after its founding, Slidell developed a creosote plant, one of the country’s largest brick manufacturing facilities, a large lumber mill and a shipyard. The Slidell shipyard contributed significantly to the national effort in both World Wars. Slidell residents worked in New Orleans ship, tank and airplane construction during World War II.

City of Slidell

The brick Olde Towne Railroad Depot in Slidell was built around 1903 for the New Orleans & Northeastern and New Orleans & Great Northern railroad, supplanting an earlier wooden passenger depot which was located on the west side of the tracks between Maine and Pennsylvania Streets. In the early 1990s, the city of Slidell submitted a grant application to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LDOTD) to receive funding under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Enhancement Act (ISTEA) of 1991 to renovate, preserve and operate the depot.

Before renovations began, the Norfolk Southern Railway donated the depot and about two acres of land to the city, and resolutions were made authorizing the mayor to enter into agreements with the LDOTD for depot renovation. Later that same year, the building was put on the National Register of Historic Places, protecting the historic character of the building.

Great American Stations

Burying the dead in a place built below sea level was a problem that faced the earliest residents of the French settlement that became New Orleans. The solution agreed upon, to entomb the departed in elaborate marble chambers above ground, created one of the city’s most lingering attractions: cemeteries that are both historic and hauntingly beautiful. Wander the purported resting places of voodoo queen Marie Laveau, musician Al Hirt and Civil War general P.G.T. Beauregard, all residents of what is known in New Orleans as the Cities of the Dead. Many offer guided tours, others you can explore on your own.

New Orleans