talking about the new extension of the light rail line here in charlotte reminded me that i’d taken some pix of the salisbury, north carolina, amtrak station back in october when we were in salisbury for fred’s 40th college reunion. below is a pix of the entrance to the station.
above: another view of the base of the tower on the front of the building.
below is a sculpture that sits right out near the train tracks.
below is the identification plaque for the sculpture.
someone in the past had made an ambitious attempt at an herb garden in a little area on the station grounds, near the boarding platform. it’s in neglect now but the rosemary has thrived! see below.
below is another exterior area of the station.
we were not able to get inside the station but the entire place (both the buildings and the grounds) had a welcoming, human-scale feel.
the architecture has a strong mediterranean influence. (note the tiled roof, which must cost a fortune to keep in good repair.) i’ve been delighted over the past year by how much of that i’ve seen here in north carolina . (i love the south-of-france/greco-roman style of architecture; it’s both beautiful and practical.)
pretty clear that the entity that owns/operates the facility is struggling. the station is available for rent (think wedding receptions) and they’ve tried to do some “adaptive re-use” on the ground floor (offering space to retail businesses.) looked to me like someone had tried that (an antique store/boutique?) but failed — there was a “for rent” sign in the window.
Here are details of the recent history of the station…
http://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/salisbury-nc-sal/
The rosemary plants were paid for by a $1 million grant of Federal funds earmarked by the NCDOT. There is a proposal to build a pedestrian underpass. Since there are two tracks there, if a freight train is going through while the Amtrak train is arriving, that is a huge safety problem and/or delays the Amtrak train.
The station does have a waiting room, but the day we were there, the NCDOT train apparently was delayed up near Greensboro for more than the half an hour that the attendant was being paid to hang around, so he made an announcement about the train being late and said he would return later. The train from Raleigh to Charlotte takes 3 hours and 20 minutes, so I suspected a train vs car accident.
The station is owned by the Historic Salisbury Foundation,
https://www.historicsalisbury.org/
The original waiting room has been converted into a rentable space, but none of the college events were there – the room has no liquor license. They are a 501(c3) corporation that has seized control of all of downtown and much of the land along Main Street, the pre Interstate route from Atlanta to Washington DC. That explains the lack of economic activity we saw. Who is going to run a supermarket when this unaccountable group can dictate what fruit your produce department carries? Creating blight is the life blood of historical preservation districts.
How would you feel if you were not in a historic district and the major felt he should manage the property in which you invested your life savings? … and “wanted to make it look presentable” ? I know that kind of nonsense would have caused me not to renew my lease.
…and of course, a train station is mentioned in the second paragraph:
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/development/2017/11/29/raritan-mayor-wants-lure-trader-joes-shopping-center/905149001/
What would require less of an investment, building a light rail system through a city that clogs traffic, or simply programming a driverless bus to follow the “pretend” light rail tracks that someone programmed into the driverless buss?
Good thing we have a new tax on imported steel. It collects taxes AND may prevent waste of local tax money.