Saving the Depot:
Jim Dorsett's Journal of the Restoration of the Cambria Depot
February 15th, 1983
As though keeping TSC alive in the midst of economic disaster and starting a printing business were not enough, Helen has launched and is spearheading a project that could develop into an engrossing undertaking. (Impossible--but that's not so big a deal!). The genesis of the project lies in the need of TSC and the print shop for more adequate quarters. In the oldest section of Christiansburg (which began as a railroad town), New Cambria, is an old Italianate, board and batten depot, built in 1856 as the main terminal in southwestern Virginia on the Virginia-Tennessee RR. It is one of the oldest such structures in the country--and until two years ago was used by a local hardware dealer as a warehouse. Then a runaway locomotive on the Norfolk Western demolished 30 feet of the freight section of the building. The railroad refused to pay any damages. Mac Mitchell, the hardware dealer--owner salvaged and saved the old materials and shored up the rest of the building. against any further deterioration but has done nothing to restore the structure. The city of Christiansburg, hewing to the letter of the law in the manner of all bureaucrats pressed to have the damaged structure razed until several historians at Virginia Tech had it listed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as an historically valued site (actually, that designation, by itself, doesn't protect the building from destruction--but for the time being the city fathers think so.)
What we are trying to do is set up a non-profit corporation for the preservaton of the building--enlisting a number of railroad and local honchos for the Board of Directors. Low interest "restoration" loans are available for such buildings. We would take a 20 year lease on the building and would oversee the restoration, using it in the short run for our needs--but in the longer run the depot would become a fully-restored museum. It is an exciting possiblity and an opportunity to preserve something that is altogether unique! I know that it is sheer madness to even consider such an undertaking in the midst of the other pressures on Dorsett Publications--but this venture is a matter of the heart. It simply ought to be done. That old depot is a tie to the past that is perilously close to extinction! Crazy--but challenging. (A 1862 Railroad map of all the rail lines on the eastern seaboard, owned by a friend in Connecticut, shows "Cambria" as the only major depot in this end of Virginia. Roanoke didn't even exist then.)
February 25th, 1983
We are anxiously awaiting nes of the reception our pitch for the Cambria Depot received at the regional meeting of the national Trust for Historical Preservation at Charlottesville. George Shakleford, a history professor at Tech and a leading local proponent of preservation took our case to the meeting. That is the last problem to be solved or cleared away before we reach a decision to take the project on. This wee, we talked with a representative of the Norfolk & WEstern--and they gave assurances that there should be no difficulty in obtaining a lease on the land. WE had feared that the building would have to be moved in order to secure its future. Early responses in the community indicates that there should be some fairly strong community support for the project. If we are able to get a low-interst restoration loan through the National Trust that will open up the way. We will go ahead and set up a non-profit corporation to hold the property and to assure its long-term oversight. Initially, we'll rebuild the freight house--transforming it into space for Dorsett Publications and Press, a sigh shop that is now located in teh passenger end and one other business. Three such businesses would provide the corporation eonugh revenue to pay the RR lease and any restoration loans. The present owner is willing to sell with no down payment and whatever terms we want to set up! (Can't ask for better terms than that!)
March 11th, 1983
The other project...the Cambria Depot...is also making headway. Last Wednesday evening we had G and G S (Historian, Virginia Tech) out to dinner and an evening of discussion of how to set up a non-profit corporation. G. knows all the shakers and movers hereabouts and suggested a number of people in the area who might serve on the Board of Directors of such a corporation. Armed with that list, Helen has been on the phone trying to solicit interest and involvement in the project. So far she has made some headway with several enthusiastic, positive responses, but we are still a long way from having enough to go ahead. But we are 100% sure that we are going to proceed with the Depot project. I don't know how, for sure, but I am certain that we will get it done.
September 10th, 1983
Editor's Note. Sometime between March 11th and September 10th, the idea of the non-profit corporation and the Board of Directors fell through. By September, Jim and Helen Dorsett decided to take on the depot on their own.
This week, if all goes as planned, we hope to sign the papers buying the Cambria Depot from Mac Mitchell. I know that project appears overwhelming (on teh order of "the mouse that roared"), but it seems to us worth trying. And while we are still not sure just how the job will be accomplished, it ought to be don and there will be a way of doing it. The reaction of the people in Cambria to our intent has been very positive--so we know there's some strong local sentiment in favor of the project.
September 17th, 1983
Next week we will sign a contract to buy the depot. We still don't know for sure how we will be able to get the job done, but we have no doubts that we will do it. It is certainly a challenge. We hope to work out a deal to get the freight room rebuilt before the snow flies --and with that done we'll move the printing office down there.
September 22nd, 1983
It appears that on October 1st, we will become the new owners of the old Cambria Depot. By the appearance of that shabby old wreck, I'm not sure whether ownership denotes good sense or madness! After almost 8 months of turning the project over and over in our minds, it is not a matter of leaping before looking--but even then there must be an element of luck in the mix if we are to accomplish what we intend. And there is a good bit of risk in the venture as well. As soon as the title is transferred, we will line up some prospective renters of space in the building: The sign painter who is currenty in there, Dorsett Publications plus a renter for the warehouse end of the building. (The lowest cost way of getting the building onto a paying or self-sustaining basis is to do as little interior rebuilding as necessary initially; and what more logical thing to do than to rent a warehouse out as....a warehouse?) With these rental commitments in hand, we'll go to the bank and try to borrow against the rental value of the property. And with that money we'll rebuild the foundation, the damage end, and the exterior of the building. Once that is secured against any further deterioration, we'll have to do some interior work right away as part of "Phase One"--to make it suitable for our operation--but hope to keep those costs at a minimum. At this time, we don't know how long it will take to accomplish these things--So I guess We'll do as we have done so far: "just take it as it comes."
November 11th, 1983
Progress on the Depot project is slow--but we still hope to get our operation into it by the year's end. Although life down there this winter will be akin to "camping out"--but we need to make the move to cut our costs. And it cannot be much worse than the building we are in--with its chronic leaky roof and decrepit furnace.
December 1st, 1983
Editor's Note. Prior to purchasing the depot, Jim and Helen Dorsett sold their old farmhouse in Giles County, purchased 1425 Cambria Street in Christiansburg, and moved to Christiansburg on July 1st.
Several blocks down the street is the other reason for our move: a reason which may stigmatize us as either quixotic or hopelessly mad. It is the Cambria depot, built in 1868 to replace the one burned by the Yankees during their attacks on the Virginia-Tennessee RR during the "Late Unpleasantness," in continuous use as a passenger and freight station and later as a warehouse unitl two years ago when a runaway freight train ran into the end of it. The train demolished 30' of the warehouse and left the rest threatened by the city's edict that it be razed. So our move was motivated in part by the intention of acquiring the remains of that lovely old derelict and restoring it as a business home for Dorsett Publications and over the longer term as a possible site where the rich history of Cambria and the RR could be collected. As a mom-and-pop operation, the prospect of the task for DPI has been a bit staggering, but the alternative seemed even less desireable. So on October 1, we acquired the title to the old hulk. With federal and state funds for historic restoration having dried up in the current economic and political climate, we have assumed yet another do-it-yourself task of formitable proportions.
December 4th, 1983
The depot project is still moving, haltingly, toward the goals we have set. Over the past month, we have made some progress but still have to solve one more riddle before we can begin to make some visible progress on the rebuilding of the structure. We finally got all the estimates from the contractor together this week which gives us what we need to know in order to go to the bank with some hard figures, but there is still a difference between the railroad and the bank on the lenght of our lease on the land under the depot. The railroad wants a short-term lease and the bank wants a longer term lease before they will loan us the money for the job. So, with contractors standing with hammers at the ready, standing in the wings, we are waiting for the RR and bank to work out their differences.
December 7th, 1983
In the last few days, the Depot situation has begun to work loose from the log jam. I just returned from the bank after a late afternoon meeting. It appears that by the end of the week, we will have secured the line of credit necessary to begin the work at last. That's the last hudle. After a year's work on the project, it is well to see a real beginning within reach!!
January 3rd, 1984
Today we arranged for a building permit with the city, tomorrow the financial arrangements at the bank should be complete, and the day after we expect work to begin on the depot. I plan on keeping a photograpic and journal record fo the work as it progresses--in much the same manner as Dad kept a photo record of all his construction projects. The historical needs require such a record as the struture of th depot is laid bare and then rebuilt.
January 17th, 1984
10 a.m. ...the phone rang. Dave Hill, the house mover, was due to arrive by noon with his crew to begin raising and leveling the depot. That posed a coupld of immediate difficulties. The loan for the project had not yet been confirmed by the bank, for one. The paperwork has been at our lawyer's --and we had not received work that the bank board had approved it yet. Moreover, as a way of insuring that the railroad, which still owns the lot under the building, and doesn't like very much histori preservation, will not jerk our lease on the land under the building, we have planned on gainaing maximum publicity on the restoration effort in the public media, as soon as the work began. I've figured that the greater the public awareness and attention to the building, the less likely the N&W RR is to wish to risk the negative publicity of doing anything that would threaten the building.
CHRISTIANSBURG (CAMBRIA) DEPOT
THE CAMBRIA TOY
STATION MUSEUM
SHOP
CAMBRIA, 1913
HISTORIC PRESERVATION... WHY BOTHER?
THE SCALE CABINETMAKER AND DORSETT
PUBLICATIONS
CAMBRIA &ENVIRONS
Letters from the Past - your letters, full of memories of old Cambria
