New money pulled into depot project

Efforts to restore Amherst’s historic train station have received a $220,000 boost.

Last week the Commonwealth Transportation Board announced Amherst County and the Friends of the Historic Amherst Station, Inc. received the funds to rehabilitate the Amherst Train Depot.

Built in 1913 by Southern Railway, the station formerly located on Depot Street was constructed as a passenger depot and later converted to handle freight. In December the old station building, which needs major renovation, was moved to a location directly off U.S. 60 visible from U.S. 29.

Marlene Fitzgerald, president of the nonprofit organization heading the effort, said the grant helps the project’s second phase of exterior improvements.

“The vision is for it to become a visitor and welcome center,” she said. “We don’t have one in the county. That’s one of the reasons we are pushing for it.”

A third phase of the project will include remodeling the interior to look as it did close to a century ago when Fitzgerald said it was in its heyday.

“We have the original set of plans,” Fitzgerald said. “It will go back to its originality.”

Bathrooms, exhibits, office space and a multi-purpose area also will be included.

As transportation evolved with motor vehicles, passenger rail service declined and the station quit operating altogether in the 1970s. It sat unoccupied until 1985 when Marshall Mays, owner of Mays Farm Service Co., bought it to use as a warehouse.

Mays donated the station to the Amherst County Chamber of Commerce with the condition that it becomes a visitor’s center.

Grants have served so far as the main funding source, said Fitzgerald, though businesses have contributed. The nonprofit intends to start a fundraiser with the general public, though she said no dates have been set.

The agency is also pursuing additional grant funding, she said.

The station’s new location overlooks Norfolk Southern railroad tracks 120 feet away.