Southern Stations

he physical reminders of Rocky Mount’s legacy however, are rapidly disappearing — its railroad heritage. The friendly picturesque All-American town that straddled the double main line tracks of Champion McDowell Davis’ great Atlantic Coast Line Railroad is fast becoming a fleeting memory. Once home to thousands of skilled machinists, electricians, black smiths, laborers and others, who kept the lights glowing ‘round the clock at the sprawling Emerson Shops complex, armies of brakemen, conductors, firemen and engineers who stoked the fires of hungry steam locomotives or made up and took apart trains of valuable manufactured goods and precious agricultural commodities, Rocky Mount appears amicable to forgetting why it was born and the reason it was one of the most important rail junctions on the east coast of the United States.

Rocky Mount isn’t alone. Altoona, PA, Huntington, WV and Omaha, NB are other towns that came into existence because the gods of railroading identified a vacant parcel of land located at just the right distance between two other points on a railroad map, picked it up, breathed life into its lungs and gave birth to it. Steel rails fed it, clothed it and caused its heart to beat vibrantly for many, many years. Only those who sold railroad workers their clothes, their groceries, their automobiles, and others who taught their children to read and write, fixed their appliances and paved their streets didn’t work for the railroad directly, but owed their own livelihoods to it.

But while some of these other towns were able to adapt their facilities to grow and expand, thus insuring their importance and long term viability, Rocky Mount was just too close to Richmond, too close to Florence. Its shops weren’t as modern as those in Waycross or Jacksonville. The winds that used to blow across the bridge yard and echo off the walls of the shops where hundreds of passenger and freight cars were built, where the ACL’s entire fleet of Electro Motive diesels and steam engines were rebuilt, are now vacant. Where thousands of workers once whistled on their way to the erecting bay, the tall grass now sings a sad lonely wail.

Rocky Mount Railroad Museum

In 1999, a 19′ by 10′ mural for the station’s waiting room was completed. It was commissioned by the North Carolina Department of Transportation and painted by artist Michael Brown. The mural depicts 100 years of railroad history in Wilson.

Great American Stations

nce heralded as "The World's Greatest Tobacco Market," Wilson, NC is now a thriving city of almost 50,000 people that has successfully recruited new business including pharmaceuticals, banking, and medical to replace the lost tobacco market revenue. During the heyday of the tobacco market in the late 1800s and early 1900s, its success drew prosperous farmers and businessmen to establish majestic homes downtown along West Nash Street, widely known as one of the most beautiful residential areas in North Carolina. Now lining the avenues of the downtown business district, historically-preserved architecture with high speed fiber optic internet blends the visions of yesteryear with the inspiration of tomorrow. Weathered brick tobacco warehouses and a Classical Revival courthouse share street space with today’s boutique shops, a regional business incubator and burgeoning arts community. A whimsical whirligig “farm” of massive, wind-driven, kinetic sculptures designed and constructed by renowned folk artist, Vollis Simpson, provides an arts-driven economic development engine for downtown revitalization.

Town of Wilson North Carolina

Born as a Railroad Town

Selma was officially chartered as a Town on February 11, 1873, but the Town’s true birth took place on May 1, 1867, when there was a public sale of lots around a newly established station on the North Carolina Railroad. Selma was born as a “Railroad Town,” and our rail heritage is still evident today, with our recently renovated 1924 Union Depot (Selma Union Depot) supporting Amtrak service.

The Town is also home to the Mitchener Station, which was built in 1855 and it is thought to be the oldest surviving train station in North Carolina. When Interstate 95 was built in the late 1950s, the Town experienced growth due to its proximity to the Interstate. Today, there are many hotels and restaurants located in the area for visitors traveling on Interstate

Town of Selma

mtrak moved into the North Charleston Intermodal Center in December 2018 following a year and a half of construction. The facility had been under discussion since the late 1990s to bring together various transportation modes — including Amtrak, Charleston Area Rapid Transit Authority (CARTA) buses and intercity buses — in one convenient location. Amtrak relocated to the intermodal center from the 1956 Atlantic Coast Line (ACL) depot, which stood directly to the south.

The one-story, nearly 15,000-square foot intermodal center is constructed of brown brick and textured concrete masonry units and features a tower on one end. Stylized pilasters create regular bays that visually break up the long, horizontal facades. A projecting bay with triangular parapet and clock face adds a strong vertical element and marks the main entrance; a canopy protects passengers from inclement weather as they arrive by car. The steeply pitched, hipped seamed-metal roof has prominent shed dormer windows that, along with numerous other windows at ground level, allow natural light to brighten the interior. Along the tracks was built a new concrete platform with canopy.

Inside, customers enjoy a spacious waiting area enlivened by a diamond pattern on the floor and accented with organic stone and wood elements. The building also has an Amtrak ticket counter, CARTA and Amtrak offices, a community room and a history display focused on the surrounding Liberty Hill neighborhood. Created as a freedmen’s settlement after the Civil War, Liberty Hill is the oldest community in North Charleston.

North Charleston, where the intermodal center is located, straddles Charleston and Dorchester counties; it was incorporated as a city in 1972. In the early 1900s, the area was set out as a planned industrial community with its growth geared directly to the industrial, military and business communities. At the time, the Park Circle neighborhood was designed as one of only two garden city models in the U.S., and most of the original planning concepts remain intact. Today the city is home to Charleston International Airport and Charleston Air Force Base.

Great American Stations / images RWH

1800’s: Earliest railroad track lines were laid from Charleston to the North Area, near what is now Rivers Avenue. Farming and lumbering were vital in the early 1800’s and the mining of phosphate for use in fertilizer created an economic boom after the Civil War. Liberty Hill, the oldest neighborhood in the North Area, was established by freedmen who purchased land in and built homes and farms for their families circa 1864. In 1898, two plantations along the Cooper River were purchased to create Chicora Park, designed by the Olmstead Brothers, as a day destination for wealthy Charlestonians.

City of North Charleston

he Town of Yemassee is a small town rich in local history. In the late seventeenth century, when Englishman began to settle coastal Carolina, a number of tribes, mostly of Muskogean stock, inhabited the area. Of those tribes, the Yamasee Indians were the most extensive and powerful. Its territory stretched along the coast from southern Georgia to the Edisto region.

The Yamasee's two major centers of power lay between the Savannah and Combahee Rivers at Pocataligo and Coosawhatchie. Towards the end of the War between the States, Sherman's army came through the area on his infamous march to the sea from Atlanta, Georgia. All of the churches in the area were destroyed, except for the Presbyterian Church, which was used as a hospital by the union army. Blood stains on the floor are visible on the still standing church.

After that war, the Port Royal-Augusta Railroad was constructed. At that time, the railroad hamlet of Yemassee was formed from the lands of Richfield Plantation and portions of the Cuthbert lands. In 1868, a post office was established. The house where Somerest Maughn wrote the Razor's Edges is located in that area. There is also a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous architect. The house is unique in its design as having no right angles. The house is located on Auld Brass Plantation and has been refurbished.

The town is located in the southeastern section of the county. Major highways passing through the town include Interstate 95 and Highway 68.

Hampton County South Carolina