Union Station (Winston-Salem, North Carolina)

Union Station is a historic train station, currently serving as a bus station, located in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina.

Union Station
General information
Location300 Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr.
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
United States
Coordinates36°5′36″N 80°13′42″W / 36.09333°N 80.22833°W / 36.09333; -80.22833
Owned byCity of Winston-Salem
Transit authorityWinston-Salem Transit Authority
Line(s)K-line
Tracks1 (no passenger service)
Bus routes5
Bus operators
ConnectionsAmtrak Amtrak Thruway
Construction
Structure typeAt-grade
AccessibleYes
ArchitectFellhimer & Wagner; et.al.
Architectural styleBeaux Arts
Other information
StatusUnstaffed
Station codeAmtrak: UWS
WebsiteUnion Station
History
Opened1926 (1926)
Closed15 June 1970 (1970-06-15)
Rebuilt2018-2019
Previous namesDavis Garage
Original companyWinston-Salem Terminal Company
Former services
Preceding station Norfolk and Western Railway Following station
Terminus Winston-Salem – Roanoke Walkertown
toward Roanoke
Preceding station Southern Railway Following station
Bethania North WilkesboroMorehead City Kernersville
Haynes Mooresville Junction – Winston-Salem Terminus
Official nameUnion Station
DesignatedDecember 24, 1998
Reference no.98001547[1]
Architectural styleBeaux Arts
Location
Map

History

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The station was built to service the Southern, Norfolk and Western and Winston-Salem Southbound Railways. It was designed by Fellhimer & Wagner and built between 1924 and 1926. It is a one to three story, banked Beaux-Arts style steel frame building faced with brick and limestone. It consists of a rectangular main body, five bays wide and eight bays deep, with a large square east wing. The front facade features a limestone portico supported by paired heroic columns with stylized Corinthian order capitals. Surrounding the building are some surviving original landscape features. The station served as the city's sole passenger train station between 1926 and 1970.[2]

The station was sold to Harvey Davis in 1975, and he converted the building into an automobile repair business called Davis Garage.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.[1]

Winston-Salem acquired the building in 2012 through eminent-domain, with a long term goal of reestablishing passenger train service to the city. In 2018 the city hired Walter Robbs Callahan & Pierce Architects and New Atlantic Contracting to restore the station, and it had a grand reopening on September 7, 2019.

Services

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Union Station currently serves as a secondary bus hub for the Winston-Salem Transit Authority, after the Clark Campbell Transportation Center.

PART's Route 1 stops at the station, and in conjunction with PART's Route 3, serves as an Amtrak Thruway connector to High Point station.

On December 8, 2023, the Federal Railroad Administration included an Amtrak route connecting Winston-Salem to Raleigh into the Corridor Identification and Development Program. The proposed route would include intermediate stops at Greensboro, Burlington, Durham, and Cary, complementing the existing state-supported Piedmont and Carolinian services. The North Carolina Department of Transportation was granted $500,000 toward engineering and feasibility studies for the route.[3]

Station layout

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The station has three levels, with the highest level at-grade with Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive and the lowest level along Norfolk Southern Railway's K-Line.

The street level, historically known as the concourse level, has the station's waiting room. The middle level is unoccupied, and the city intends on leasing out the space. The City of Winston-Salem Department of Transportation offices and Traffic Management Center occupies the station's lowest floor.

References

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  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ Laura A. W. Phillips (June 1998). "Union Station" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-11-01.
  3. ^   This article incorporates public domain material from FY22 Corridor Identification and Development Program Selections (PDF). United States Department of Transportation. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
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