Petersburg Union Station

Petersburg Union Station is a former train station in Petersburg, Virginia. It was built in 1909–1910 for the Norfolk and Western Railway, and was later used by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Amtrak.

Petersburg, VA
Petersburg Union Station in 2005
General information
Location103 River Street, Petersburg, Virginia
Coordinates37°14′3.4″N 77°24′9.2″W
Former services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station
Nottoway County
toward Chicago
 Mountaineer
1975–1977
 Suffolk
toward Norfolk
Preceding station Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Following station
Reams
toward Tampa
 Main Line Dunlop
toward Richmond
Preceding station Norfolk and Western Railway Following station
Jack
toward Cincinnati
 Main Line Poe
toward Norfolk
Petersburg Union Station
Built1909-1910
ArchitectNorfolk and Western Railway
Part ofPetersburg Old Town Historic District (ID80004314[1])
Designated CPJuly 4, 1980

History
Union Station in 1921
The Pocahantas at Petersburg in 1970

The Petersburg Railroad (opened 1833) and Richmond and Petersburg Railroad (opened 1838) ran north–south on a winding route through Petersburg. The two lines merged in 1898 and became part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) in 1900. The ACL used a station located at Washington Street and Union Street.[2] The east–west Southside Railroad, predecessor of the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W), opened in the early 1850s. It used a still-extant station at River Street and Rock Street.

The Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) opened its own north–south line through Petersburg in 1900, crossing the Appomattox River on a high bridge. The SAL had a passenger station at Dunlop Street for through trains, and terminating passenger and freight stations at Market Street on a spur line.[3] The SAL never used Union Station; the Dunlop Street station was replaced with a brick station near Bluefield Street in 1944.

In 1909–10, the N&W constructed Union Station at the junction with the ACL near Third Street.[2] It allowed riders to transfer between the Norfolk–Cincinnati trains - the Cavalier, Pocahontas and Powhatan Arrow - and ACL Florida–New York trains. The ACL moved to a new station in Ettrick on a western bypass route in 1955, leaving only the N&W at Union Station.

When Amtrak took over intercity passenger service on May 1, 1971, east–west service on the N&W was discontinued, while north–south service continued to use the Ettrick station. From 1975 to 1977, Amtrak operated the Norfolk-Cincinnati Mountaineer, with a stop at Union Station[4] The Hilltopper, which replaced the Mountaineer and ran until 1979, used a station located slightly to the west at Fleet Street instead.

Union Station is part of the Petersburg Old Town Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[5]

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. Willoughby, Laura E. (2006). Petersburg. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 100–103. ISBN 0-7385-4285-7.
  3. First Annual Report of the Seaboard Air Line Railway. 1901. p. 10.
  4. Amtrak (May 15, 1975). "All-America Schedules". Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  5. Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission Staff (November 1979). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Petersburg Old Town Historic District" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources. and Accompanying photo and Accompanying map Archived December 29, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
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