Terminal Station (Macon, Georgia)

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Terminal Station
Terminal Station from Cherry St.jpg
View of Terminal Station from Cherry Street
General information
Location200 Cherry St, Macon, Georgia
Macon-Bibb County
United States
Coordinates 32°50′1.557″N83°37′34.7658″W / 32.83376583°N 83.626323833°W / 32.83376583; -83.626323833
Owned by Macon-Bibb County Transit Authority
Transit authorityMacon-Bibb County Transit Authority
Construction
Structure typeAt-grade
ParkingAt street level, on either side of the station
Architect Alfred T. Fellheimer
Architectural style Beaux-Arts
Other information
Website mta-mac.com/terminal-station
History
Opened1916
Closed1971
Former services
Preceding station Central of Georgia Railway Following station
Macon Junction
toward Atlanta
Main Line Griswold
toward Savannah
Rutland
toward Lockhart
LockhartMacon Terminus
Terminus MaconAthens Ocmulgee Bridge
toward Athens
Preceding station Seaboard Air Line Railroad Following station
Terminus Macon Subdivision Smithsonia
toward Vidalia
Preceding station Southern Railway Following station
Holton
toward Chattanooga
ChattanoogaJacksonville Reid
toward Jacksonville
Preceding station Georgia Railroad Following station
TerminusCamak-Macon Postell
toward Camak
Macon Historic District (Boundary Increase)
USA Georgia location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationRoughly, Adams St. and Linden Ave. S, W and N of Tattnall Sq. and Broadway and Third Sts. between Poplar and Pine Sts., Macon, Georgia
Area91 acres (37 ha)
Built1871 (1871)
Architectural styleQueen Anne, Bungalow/craftsman, Art Deco
NRHP reference No. 95000233 [1]
Added to NRHPJuly 27, 1995
Location
Terminal Station (Macon, Georgia)

Terminal Station, Macon, Georgia, is a railroad station that was built in 1916, [2] and is located on 5th St. at the end of Cherry St. It was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by architect Alfred T. Fellheimer (1875–1959), prominent for his design of Grand Central Terminal in New York City in 1903. The station building is part of the Macon Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [3] While no longer an active train station, it has been the location of the Macon Transit Authority bus hub since 2014. [4]

Contents

Early history

Col. Robert L. Berner, a prominent Macon attorney and former state legislator, filed a petition on September 28, 1912, with the Georgia Railroad Commission, asking that the railroads calling at Macon be required to erect an adequate union passenger station in Macon. His efforts culminated in the construction of Terminal Station, which was officially opened in 1916. [5]

The Terminal Station building has a limestone exterior, with the main lobby and waiting areas having floors and walls of pink Tennessee marble. [6]

Terminal Station encompassed 13 acres and was owned by the Macon Terminal Company. By the mid-1920s, the station dispatched an estimated 100 arrivals and departures per day. [2] The station was served by the Georgia Railroad, Central of Georgia Railway, Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad, and Southern Railway. [7]

Postcard view of Terminal Station circa 1930 Terminal Station, at night, Macon, Georgia (8368122138).jpg
Postcard view of Terminal Station circa 1930

The last trains running from there were the Royal Palm (1970) and the Nancy Hanks (1971). The final run of the Nancy Hanks on April 30, 1971, ended 125 years of intercity rail service in Macon. [8]

A bronze statue of William Morrill Wadley was erected outside the station in 1885, three years after his death. [9]

Notable trains

The Central also operated a Birmingham - Columbus - Savannah night train through the station in the early 1950s. [10]

Recent history

After almost sixty years of service, Terminal Station closed in 1971, and the building remained unused. In 1982, it was purchased by Georgia Power Company and utilized as offices until the 1990s. The City of Macon purchased the Terminal Station in 2002, and funded the restoration of the building. [6] The city council voted in 2014 to give the property to the Macon Transit Authority. [4]

Greyhound Lines announced in July 2019 that it was moving its existing operations in Macon to the Terminal Station. The stated goal for the move was to bring passengers more local transportation options, namely the Macon Transit Authority's bus hub. [11] In 2020, the Terminal Station was used as a filming location for scenes from the award-winning Amazon series The Underground Railroad . [12]

Brosnan Yard

Occupying the former Central of Georgia shop complex just southwest of the Terminal Station is Norfolk Southern's Brosnan Yard. The rail yard was opened in 1967 and named after William Brosnan, then president of Southern Railway. [13] In 2020, it was announced that Brosnan Yard was one of several yards being idled, as part of Norfolk Southern's transition to precision railroading. [14]

Related Research Articles

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Macon, officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in Georgia, United States. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is 85 miles (137 km) southeast of Atlanta and near the state's geographic center—hence its nickname "The Heart of Georgia".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central of Georgia Railway</span> Railroad constructed to join Macon, Georgia, and Savannah, Georgia

The Central of Georgia Railway started as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company in 1833. As a way to better attract investment capital, the railroad changed its name to Central Rail Road and Banking Company of Georgia. This railroad was constructed to join the Macon and Western Railroad at Macon, Georgia, in the United States, and run to Savannah. This created a rail link from Chattanooga, on the Tennessee River, to seaports on the Atlantic Ocean. It took from 1837 to 1843 to build the railroad from Savannah to the eastern bank of the Ocmulgee River at Macon; a bridge into the city was not built until 1851.

<i>Nancy Hanks</i> (train)

The Nancy Hanks was a popular Central of Georgia Railway and later Southern Railway passenger train in Georgia running between Atlanta and Savannah. It was named after a race horse that was named for Abraham Lincoln's mother. The name is even older than the mid-20th century train derived from that of a short-lived but famous steam special, the Nancy Hanks. The earlier Nancy operated in 1892 and 1893.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of William Morrill Wadley</span> Monument in Macon, Georgia

William M. Wadley is a public monument in Macon, Georgia, United States. The monument, which consists of a bronze statue atop a granite pedestal, was designed by Robert Cushing and dedicated in 1885 in honor of William Morrill Wadley, a railroad executive for the Central of Georgia Railroad who had died several years earlier. The monument was erected by a committee made up of his former employees and stands near the city's Terminal Station.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Macon Terminal Station". Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage.
  3. "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Macon Historic District (revised)". National Park Service. June 27, 1995. p. 16. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Gaines, Jim (July 16, 2014). "MTA gets Terminal Station". The Macon Telegraph. Retrieved May 30, 2022.(subscription required)
  5. Terminal Station Opens, April 6, 1917, The Macon Telegraph, Macon, Georgia
  6. 1 2 Pluta, John (April 25, 2013). "Macon Georgia Terminal Station". Railroadstrains blog.
  7. Official Guide of the Railways . National Railway Publication Company. June 1941.
  8. McKay, Archie (May 1, 1971). "She burnt the wind: Last ride of the Nancy Hanks". The Macon Telegraph . Aboard the Nancy. Archived from the original on September 1, 1999.
  9. Stewart, Dorothy Houseal (Spring 1994). "Survival of the Fittest: William Morrill Wadley and the Central of Georgia Railroad's Coming of Age, 1866-1882". Georgia Historical Quarterly . 78 (1). Georgia Historical Society: 39–65. ISSN   0016-8297. JSTOR   40582984.
  10. "Central of Georgia Railway, Table 4". Official Guide of the Railways. 84 (7). National Railway Publication Company. December 1951.
  11. Kousouris, Abby (July 31, 2019). "'It's all here in the same building:' Greyhound station relocates to Macon Transit hub". 13wmaz.com. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
  12. "Upcoming Amazon series 'The Underground Railroad' features scenes at Macon's Terminal Station". 13wmaz.com. May 11, 2021. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
  13. Kovac Jr., Joe (October 17, 2017). "You may have never seen it, but Macon's Brosnan Yard is a railroad wonder". The Macon Telegraph. Retrieved January 7, 2023.(subscription required)
  14. Stephens, Bill (October 8, 2020). "Norfolk Southern to idle its sixth hump, at yard in Macon, Ga". Trains.com. Retrieved May 26, 2022.