The Railroad and Depot in Wake Forest

The Railroad and Depot in Wake Forest. . , (Header captions) , This 1854 map shows the railway lines that had already been established across North Carolina. The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad, which located its original depot in Forestville. was completed in 1840. The tracks passed through Wake Forest, an area that was mainly farmland. and skirted the eastern edge of the new College campus. The development of houses and businesses initially followed at a snail's pace, only beginning when the College trustees decided to sell parcels of their unused land., This 1850 lithograph of the early Wake Forest College campus shows the railroad tracks along with a few of the nearby structures. Dominating in the rear center is the College Building, erected in 1837 at a cost of $20,000 and which contained a chapel, library, classrooms, and dormitory. On the left are two additional 1800s landmarks: the South Brick House stands in the foreground and behind it is the Wake Forest Hotel., Using the College as leverage, the trustees worked to convince representatives of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad to move the depot to Wake Forest. In 1874 they finally succeeded. The change shifted all future passenger and freight stops to a site beside the campus, an area that soon would become the center of downtown Wake Forest, This was a maior blow for the community of Forestville which, although it remained a town until 1915, never fully recovered. This 1880s image shows its early days., Wake Forest's business district flourished while Forestville declined. At the same time, residents and College boys made good use of the passenger depot. From 1904 to 1925, a train called the Shoo-Fly , two coaches and a mail car , ran from Raleigh to Weldon with stops in Wake Forest, Thelma,Warr enton, Littleton, Norlina, and Roanoke Rapids. It brought students to campus and Wake Forest fans to baseball and football games. A favorite student pastime was to gather on the grassy bank to watch the trains pull in., North Carolina was forever changed in 1834 with the introduction of two significant events. The Baptist State Convention opened Wake Forest Institute to train young men to be ministers, and North Carolina's first railroad was chartered to run between Raleigh and Wilmington. Both major organizations soon were renamed: the railway became the Wilmington and Weldon and the Institute became Wake Forest College., By 1840, North Carolina had a second rail line. The Raleigh and Gaston sent trains chugging through the fields dotted with homes that surrounded the young College campus. Although Wake Forest College had approximately 200 students and a number of professors, it had no train station. The railroad depot was in the larger community of Forestville, one mile south., But as Wake Forest College grew in stature and size, its leaders lobbied to have the depot moved. They finally succeeded, and in 1874 the train station was relocated to Wake Forest. In fact, the actual depot building was put on wheels and rolled down the railroad tracks., This marked the start of 80 years of growth for the Town of Wake Forest. With a proper place for trains to stop, local farmers and businessmen could prosper. Having gained the ability to ship and receive large loads of cargo, their investments sparked an economic boom and downtown development followed. Soon South White Street was a true business district with general stores, groceries clothing shops, and facilities for transporting cotton and textiles. The railroad eventually changed ownership and became the Seaboard Railway., More exiting for the students and townfolk was the fact that Wake Forest was part of a regular route that carried travelers to major cities. Early passenger trains like the Shoo-Fly, which reportedly get its name by running so slowly that it often shooed flies off the track, were replaced by sleek, modern wonders with mid-century curves and gleaming stainless steel. The bustling town even had two depots, one for passengers and the other for freight, which faced each other across the tracks., But as with so mach in Wake Forest, train travel declined after the College moved to its Winston-Salem campus in 1956. Without students and faculty regularly boarding rail cars, the passenger depot was demolished in 1964 and replaced with a small brick building. The freight depot was torn down the following year to make way for a parking lot., The Accidents and the Underpass , A series of train wrecks in the first half of the 20 century led to new safety measures or closings at many of the town's grade crossings., The building that housed downtown's Hardwicke's Drug Store was particularly vulnerable to trains jumping the track. It survived a near miss in 1917 and took direct hits in 1928 and 1942. (Photo from the Arrington Collection.) The traffic underpass was added in the 1930s following a tragic school bus accident at the Wait Avenue crossing., (Footer captions) , The original depot was moved from Forestville in 1874 (above). In this 1880s view of the passenger station (left), the roof of the freight depot is visible on the right., Passenger depot, c.1942, A pair of railway tickets from the museum's collection show the universal nature of 20th century train travel. On the left is a pass purchased by Wake Forest College student D.E. Ward in the early 1940s. On the right is a 1,000-mile pass issued to Susie Lanneau Powell in the 1910s. Powell, who had a home on North Main Street, founded the Wake Forest Garden Club., It wasn't usual for residents to hop a train to New York City (Left to right): Irene Mang, Lib Greason, Irene Holding Isabella Gill, and Nancy Harris.