Chattanooga Tennessee

Terminal Station

What do: The Chicago World’s Fair, the New York City Public Library, the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco CA, The Vanderbilt House in Newport (RI), and the Terminal Station in Chattanooga TN have in common? The answer, as I am sure many have guessed, is they are all premier examples of the Beaux-Arts style of Architecture.

The Beau Arts Style of Architecture was a popular style in America from about 1885 to 1920. The name comes from a particular school of architecture, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris France (Beaux-Arts is the French word we translate as “Fine Arts” in English).

The Beaux-Arts style was marked by a preference for using designs and ornamentation from earlier periods of architecture, primarily from Roman and Renaissance buildings. In addition to the columns arches etc. that one would expect from a design with this parentage, it also included designs worked into the exterior walls. These designs were made of the same material as the rest of the wall and thus made to seem as if they were a regular, essential part of the structure and not just a bric-a-brac ornamentation (though, in fact, that is exactly what they were/are).

Of all the buildings listed above, one stands out as being able to claim that it was a “prize-winning” example of Beaux-Arts Architecture. In 1900 Donald Barber was a student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He submitted a design for a building in a contest the school sponorsed, and won. Several years later, now a graduate, he was approached by the President of the Southern Railway about designing a Terminal building for the railroad to use in Chattanooga Tennessee. According to the records, the design he presented, and executed, was the design he had won the prize with in Paris.

The Chattanooga Terminal was opened in 1909 and was used by the Southern Railway until 1970. In 1973 it was re-developed as a hotel and opened as a Hilton. In 1989, as a prelude to a major renovation, the Hilton was closed. After it was restored, it was re-opened, this time as a Holiday Inn.

We stayed there in 2006. The interior of the Terminal is now a combination Front Desk, Lobby, Bar and Restaurant. The actual hotel section with rooms is in back of the terminal building. However, there are also some old style “Pullman cars” parked on non-functioning tracks beween the two structures which can be rented for a night’s stay. Also out back, in addition to static displays of various pieces of equipment, there is one functioning piece, a restored New Orleans Street car. When we were there, it was possible to take a brief ride on this specimen on a short circuit around the hotel’s property.

If you ever go to Chattanooga Tennessee, and there is a lot to see and do there, I strongly recommend you consider staying at this land-mark, design award-winning structure. And by all means, ride the Trolley if you can.

Thurmond West Virginia

The Chesapeake and Ohio Depot

These days, three days a week, Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, two Amtrak Trains, # 50 (Eastbound) and # 51 (Westbound) The Cardinal, pass by this station located in one of West Virginia’s, and I would submit America’s, most famous Ghost Towns. Because this town (yes, under the laws of the State of West Virginia it is still an “Incorporated” town with a mayor city council etc.) is a well-known White Water Rafting mecca, Amtrak still lists Thurmond as a flag stop. And sometimes, occasionally, the Cardinal, will stop, but only occasionally. But it was not always so. During the first two decades of the 20th Century, the Thurmond Depot hosted 15 trains a day, and handled as many as 95,000 passengers a year (note: for FY 2008 Amtrak reported the grand total of Boardings and Alightings at Thurmond WV came to 405)!

Thurmond WV began its existence in post Civil War West Virginia. It was the offspring of the fertile mind of Captain William Dabney Thurmond. He was called “Captain” because during the then “recent unpleasantness” had had led a group of Confederate “fighters” known as “Thurmond’s Rangers.” (Note: for much more of the historical background on the town click on: http://www.wvculture.org/history/wvhs1403.html. This is an article by Jessica Fair on Thurmond which appeared in the West Virginia Historical Society Quarterly in 2000.) Nowadays, in addition to having the town named after him, he has an extreme sport triathlon, consisting of whitewater rafting, biking and running events, named in his honor: “Captain Thurmond’s Challenge.”

In 1873 when the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad was finally completed through the Allegheny Mountains, Captain Thurmond built a railroad depot on some of his land in Fayette County WV. All of his holdings, and the Depot in particular, were located on a small spit of land on the north side of the New River. Then he and his sons went into business hauling produce and passengers in, and passengers out on the newly completed Richmond to Huntington rail line. His “town” never grew to more than about 75 people. But it was a complete town with a general store, post office, Western Union office, Adams Express office, and after 1891 a hotel in addition to the depot. But one thing it didn’t have was liquor.

Captain Thurmond was a strict Baptist and he wanted that evil “firewater” kept out of “his” town. As part of his plan to do this he had his town Incorporated in 1901. He wanted to be sure that if you lived in his hamlet located on a narrow piece of land on the north side of the New River, deep in the heart of the New River Gorge, you would never be in temptation’s way. With “Incorporation” he insured that this would remain the situation in Thurmond. Now that he was sure he had Satan under control, in 1904 the old depot was torn down and a new one was built. This depot is the one pictured above.

Oh yes, the Liquor, it never did come to Thurmond. But it came close. A commercial rival of Mr. Thurmond’s, a Mr. McKell, saw a “business opportunity” and opened a rival hotel to Mr. Thurmond’s establishment but on the south side of the New River, not within Thurmond itself, but literally within sight of the Thurmond C & O Depot. This hotel, The Dunglen Hotel, became known as a “Little Monte Carlo” because it not only had liquor, particularly for miner’s on the week-ends, but also gambling, “the world’s oldest profession’ (ahem it is hard to maintain a family-oriented blog these days isn’t it), and 100 rooms. Among other activities, there are those who claim (a claim published in that noted historical authority: “Ripley’s Believe it or Not!”) that the Dunglen Hotel hosted the worlds longest running poker game. This Gaming Marathon lasted, it is claimed, for 14 years. (Too bad they didn’t continue on so they could have hosted a show on the Travel Channel.)

In the 2000 Census the town of Thurmond had a population of 7 (click on the site if you don’t believe me). I really don’t think there has been much of an influx since then, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see a decrease in next year’s counting. Most of the buildings are vacant and not open under normal operations (don’t worry, from what I have heard and seen, there is nothing in them anyway, unless you are into the paranormal world). The Depot is owned by the National Park Service and is part of their New River Gorge National River operation.

The Thurmond Depot is a National Park Service Visitor’s Center. It is opened during the “tourist season” (generally during the summer and a few “high tourist weekends” such as the fall foliage season). It has a few exhibits downstairs and a few more upstairs as well. On the second level, in the “Bay Window” extension on the track side (the above shot is of the other side) is a recreation of the railroad telegrapher’s office complete with a manikin dressed in his C&O uniform and a recorded message wherein this “agent” tells about what he did back when Thurmond was a classic American Mining Boomtown.

You can still travel to Thurmond West Virginia today. The National Park Service directions are as follows:

“To reach Thurmond, take U.S. Route 19 to the Glen Jean exit, north of Beckley. Follow the signs to Thurmond, seven miles down WV Route 25 (Route 25 is a narrow, winding road and is not recommended for RVs and trailers). No automotive services are available in Thurmond.”

Those of you who may travel into this area in an RV or even a small truck with a trailer note the warning about Route 25 well. I drive this road 1 or 2 times a year. They are not kidding and yes, I have seen several “rigs” driven by “experienced” drivers come to grief on this road. Yes, the curves ARE that bad. But other than that, I do urge you to come, not only to see the Depot, but also “Downtown Thurmond.”

Special note: The Hotel Dunglen, mentioned above, burned to the ground in 1930. The site is now a parking lot used by the National Park Service and its visitors. As with most National Park Sites, I am sure the use of alcohol is prohibited and the Rangers probably would not want card games or any other shenanigans going on either. Ahh . . . Captain Thurmond would be pleased.

Olympia Washington

Centennial Station

This station poses the eternal question that bedevils rail fans and non rail fans alike: namely, when is something new, really something old? But before you get an answer, you’ve got to understand the history behind the riddle.

Olympia Washington (actually the location is east of Olympia) had a Northern Pacific Railroad train station for many years. However, in the late 1960’s, given the passenger traffic declines, and the desire of the then-failing railroads to exit the unprofitable passenger business, the station was razed after the last passenger train had departed.

Even after the arrival of Amtrak, rail passengers going through Olympia Washington found a wooden bus shelter in a remote area, with bad parking and no other connection to any form of public transportation. Finally one of the County Commissioners, George Barner, realizing that a train station is, first and foremost, a community’s way of saying “hello” to the traveling public began the process of raising the money for Olympia to build a new station.

After several years of fund-raising efforts, the community managed to gather together a combination of $100,000.00 (USD) in cash, and an estimated $300,000.00 (USD) to erect the structure. These efforts allowed the work on the new passenger station for Olympia, and the adjacent community of Lacey, to begin. The new station, dubbed “Centennial Station” was opened in 1993.

Since it was not an “Amtrak Station” it was not staffed by Amtrak. Instead a collection of volunteers has manned the station during all operating hours since the station was opened.

Now, we get to the old part. On the inside the Station is very “new.” It has several eco-friendly energy-conservation features. It also has a very modern electronic train status board so that awaiting passengers have some access to train arrival and departure information. However, for the outside the architect, Harold E. Dalke (who had donated his services), decided to keep the “look” old. He did this, in part, by incorporating into his design a collection of 150 year old corbels made of Cyprus which had been saved from houses on Cherokee Street in New Orleans LA. While the pieces, as most Victorian-type “Gingerbread,” are strictly decorative and structurally add nothing to the building, esthetically, they add a lot. They help to remind us that while this is a new building, it has a very old, traditional, function: Welcoming the weary traveler into your midst.

Today much of the thinking about building train stations/ airports/ bus terminals (or that new conglomerate the “Intermodal Center”) appears to hold that most travelers are rushing through the station on their way to their “real” destination. Thus they are looking for nothing more than entertainment, if even that, while they await their next mode of transport. However, Centennial Station reminds us that we should also take the time, as a community, to welcome the stranger within our midst.

I have visited this station on several occasions. While I found the “electronic boards” to not always be correct, at least the people inside the station were friendly, and I was made to feel welcome. That says a lot about what a train station, or any kind of mass transportation terminal, should be.