Rural Retreat Depot set to pull out of town

By JOE TENNIS
Media General News Service
Published: July 15, 2008

Jack Weaver figures he’s been waiting on a train – or a train company, in his case – long enough.

So, come August, the owner of the historic Rural Retreat Depot plans to pull up stakes and chug out of town.
Weaver, 71, wants to move the train station to property he owns at Mount Airy, a long-lost stagecoach stop along U.S. Highway 11 in Wythe County.

The reason: He’s in a catch-22 situation. Weaver owns the building, but he does not own the land where it rests. Also, despite Weaver’s repeated requests, the landowner, Norfolk Southern Corp., refuses to make a deal.

“Selling that land would not be compatible with our need to expand capacity on that line,” said Robin Chapman, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern. “We don’t have a specific plan, but we are participating with the state in studying the passenger and commuter rail needs in that corridor. Also, we anticipate traffic continuing to increase in that corridor.”

Rural Retreat Town Manager Raymond Matney disagrees that holding the land is necessary for Norfolk Southern’s growth.

“Would this three-tenths of an acre be a deterrent to future expansion?” Matney asked. “I can’t imagine. I just can’t foresee that three-tenths of an acre would be a deterrent.”

Neither can Weaver.

Still, without owning both the building and that small piece of land, Weaver can’t get the property listed on historic registers or gain grants to help restore the structure.

“Over the years, I’ve talked to everybody, really, about this thing,” Weaver said. “The whole key to it is you’ve got to own both. You have to have both of them.”

‘Close proximity’

A few years ago, Weaver talked with Norfolk Southern about buying the land. He still has a copy of a 2001 letter noting the potential sale for $8,500.

But then, in a follow-up letter, the company plan changed, Weaver said. Subsequently, he has been leasing the land one year at a time.

“The thing about it is, they have sold depots before and sold the land,” Weaver said. “The same thing has occurred before – I don’t know what their hang-up is on this one.”

Proximity might be the key.

“Because the depot is in such close proximity to our main line track, Norfolk Southern has decided it’s not in the railroad’s best interest to sell that land,” Chapman said.

Weaver also has tried to sell the structure. Recently, he listed the depot building for $195,000 with Carroll Gordon, owner/broker of Crossroads Real Estate.

“We’ve changed that on there,” Gordon said, “and had it to say, ‘Call for Details,’ if they’re interested in it. It has to be moved or you have to assume the lease on it.”

Yet Weaver, now, may be reconsidering.

“If somebody came along and made an offer, sure,” Weaver said. “It’s open for consideration, let’s put it that way. I’m not really looking for a sale on it.”

‘Not much choice’

Still, Weaver said, something must be done. And quick.

“There’s not much choice. It’s beginning to need attention,” Weaver said. “And you can’t afford to invest money in it without owning the land. You’re talking about $150,000 or better.”

Inside, the depot has two waiting rooms – a sign of long-ago segregation – with one side for whites and the other for blacks. Outside, the paint is chipping. Vines crawl up the sides of the building.

“It’s still a very solid structure, but the roof needs some attention to it,” Weaver said. “It would probably certainly stand for another three, four or five years. But it’s not going to stand forever.”

The depot might date to as early as the 1850s. Local tradition said it was burned, at least partially, during the Civil War and built – or rebuilt – in the late 1860s.

Weaver noted its architecture as “carpenter gothic.”

Jim Lloyd, a local barber and musician, recalled hearing stories of how World War I soldiers loaded on cars at the depot “used to throw their addresses out the window and asked people to write to them.”

To railroad fans, the place is famous. Here, the famous train photographer O. Winston Link made a well-known picture, “The Birmingham Special Gets the Highball at Rural Retreat” at this depot in the late 1950s.

Link also made a recording of a locomotive here, said Crockett resident and railroad buff Bill Hall.

Even in its present condition, the depot remains a tourist attraction, said Litz, 55, the town mayor.

“We prefer to own the land, if we can get it,” Litz said. “The goal is to restore it where it is.”

‘Very visible’

Previously owned by Southern States and used to store grain, the depot was purchased by Weaver in 1992. Its property tax value assessment is $6,000, Matney, the town manager, said.

Weaver said he will lose any chance of getting the depot on a historic register or receive tax credits if the depot is moved. Yet he’s still talking about it.

“It won’t be moved on July 15, but I’ll let the contract sometime about mid-July, so we’ll have pretty weather to move it in,” Weaver said.

He plans to relocate the depot in two pieces to a site about two miles from Rural Retreat, on a hill between Interstate 81 and U.S. 11 at Mount Airy, hardly more than a mile above the Smyth County line.

This village, actually, inspired the first name used on the Rural Retreat depot, dubbed “Mount Airy,” but eventually changed to “Rural Retreat” because it kept getting mixed up with another Mount Airy – in North Carolina.

“We have a property that we can move this depot to,” Weaver said. “And it would be a fun project to work on now that I’m retired. Now’s the good time in my life to do it. I have the energy and the finances in order to do it.”

The new site would make the depot “very visible” to the thousands of motorists on both highways, Weaver said. “What I would really like to do is restore it back to the way it was.”

Weaver also might open the depot to the public, he said.

Weaver offers some consolation to those who want to keep the depot on the downtown square.

“I’ll have to tell them they have to drive two miles to look at it,” Weaver said. “But the good news is that it will be saved. It will not just be totally fallen down or bulldozed.”

Joe Tennis writes for the Bristol Herald Courier. Contact him at (276) 791-0704.