It is being restored inside and out, with handicapped access, a raised platform for Amtrak passengers, and new paint job, roof and canopy.
The last time the 1899-era station underwent a major facelift was in 1948. The latest renovation project began last summer. The paint was peeling. The roof was in poor shape, and the gutters were rotting. The station, on Broad Street between New Hampshire and Connecticut avenues, had become a real eyesore in the downtown. The interior of the building had also deteriorated.
Southern Pines now owns the passenger depot. Amtrak Silver-star passenger trains stop there on their north-south route every day.
The town received $800,000 in federal funds for railway projects to renovate and restore the depot.
David White, the town’s buildings and grounds director, said recently that much of the work is nearly done. That includes the new roof, a new coat of paint with white, green and black trim (the original colors), new gutters, canopy and extensive indoor restoration work.
Work continues to improve the parking area. New walkways added on the streetside will buffer the side of the wood-framed building from passing vehicles.
White expects that Amtrak passengers will be able to get inside the waiting room and bathrooms around Dec. 17.
The job should be completed, both inside and out, by the end of December, he told the Southern Pines Business Association and the Civic Club recently. The Town Council could hold an open house in January, he said.
The depot is on the National Register of Historic Places.
More modern improvements include handicapped access fixtures, a new outdoor canopy with new copper and a concrete platform raised eight inches to make it easier for passengers to get on and off the train.
The most recent schedule for the Amtrak Silver Star shows it stopping at 11:41 p.m. on its way south to Florida and stopping about 3:37 a.m. returning north to Boston.
From 1943 until 1986, Judy Meares Wallace of Southern Pines worked for Seaboard Railroad Company, most of it out of the old depot when it still had enough passenger traffic to warrant having employees manning it. She sold tickets.
She was transferred for a time to work in Richmond County, where the Hamlet office was a hub for Seaboard. She later retired after 43 years with the railroad.
She still remembers the coal-fired, pot-bellied stoves inside, which eventually were replaced by steam radiators.
“This whole subject brings back many, many memories,” she said at a recent Southern Pines Civic Club meeting during which White gave his update.
Since the last employee, a Southern Pines resident named J.E. Hoffman, retired in the 1980s, the Southern Pines station has not been staffed.
People purchase tickets online from amtrak.com or by calling 1-800-307-5000.
CSX still owns the tracks and leases the land itself under the freight and depot buildings and structures to Southern Pines. the town owns the buildings and other structures.
The town will become responsible for maintaining them once the renovation work is completed. The N.C. Division of Railways is supervising the restoration work.
The brick freight building will have some repairs done to it also, allowing CSX to use the inside for storage and office space, White said. The brick building is farther south at Connecticut and Broad Street. Only the outside will be refurbished, a $150,000 job. White announced that Southern Pines has been awarded a $120,000 grant for this project.
“This will bring the brick freight depot up cosmetically, allowing us to clean the bricks, and fix the roof and outside platform. There is no money to provide any parking at the freight station.”
Carolina Construction Co. Inc. of Cheraw, S.C., is doing the restoration work on the passenger depot. The N.C. Historic Preservation Association in Raleigh and Clearscapes of Raleigh oversaw the restoration work to make sure any new, updated features fit in with the historic design and architecture.
The station will look much the same as it did in the early 20th century when it was first turned into something more than a primitive shed to serve the visitors who used it exclusively to visit Southern Pines, according to White.
The Southern Pines Town Council would like to rent interior space in the depot to an appropriate business or organization to get some income to defray maintenance costs and to enhance the historic downtown, White said.
So far, the Southern Pines Business Association board has submitted a proposal to use some of the space in the depot for a combined historic museum and welcome center for visitors, to provide information on activities and points of interest around Southern Pines.
White said he had received another proposal from a business but added the historic structure would be suitable only for activities that wouldn’t require extensive changes since it is on the National Register of Historic Places, as is the entire core downtown.
“Some suggestions came in earlier about restaurants going in, but the vents and other adaptations needed for a restaurant wouldn’t be suitable,” he said.
White said he is turning over any proposals to rent the building to the Southern Pines Town Council for consideration.
Mayor Frank Quis said recently that the council would consider proposals to rent the passenger depot at a later date.
