(rshsdepot) Mount Holly, NC

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

P&N site joins line of depot restorations
Redeveloper envisions office, retail space

JOE DEPRIEST
Staff Writer - Charlotte Observer

Dwight Dellinger had about given up hope for saving Mount Holly's old
Piedmont & Northern depot.

Vandalized and run down, the Spanish-mission-style building with a red tile
roof seemed on a fast track for the end of the line.

But Huntersville redeveloper Charles Guignard recently put the brakes on the
brick depot's decline and plans to spend about $300,000 making it into
office and retail space. The building could be open in a year to a
year-and-a-half.

"I think that's great," said Dellinger, 78, a Mount Holly resident who
caught Charlotte-bound trains there during the 1940s. "It's a really neat
building with that turn-of-the century architecture. I think it'll be a
positive for the city."

During the 1990s, Dellinger worked with the Gaston-Lincoln Genealogical
Society to save the depot. Other attempts followed, with no success because
of a lack of money.

City officials say the refurbished depot will fit in well with $5 million in
improvements voters approved in a bond referendum earlier this year. Under
that plan, in front of the depot will be a greenway linking downtown Mount
Holly to a "gateway" park at the end of the Catawba River bridge on N.C. 27.
The depot is also near an American & Efird mill building that will be
renovated for the new City Hall.

"The depot will go from being an eyesore to a showplace," said Mount Holly
City Council member Frank McLean, who rode the P&N train to Gastonia during
the late 1940s. "I wish that man (Guignard) all the luck in the world."

From Rocky Mount to Greensboro, from Wilson to Statesville, old train depots
are getting remodeled all over North Carolina, said Myrick Howard, president
of Raleigh-based Preservation North Carolina.

The buildings are being retooled for everything from offices to libraries.

"They still have that railroad mystique," Howard said. "Trains tend to have
a lot of romance in people's minds, part of the wanderlust and fascination
of travel. I'm delighted to know another depot is being saved."

He said renovated depots become "prominent public buildings for a community,
something they want to show off."

Lucy Penegar, chairwoman of the Gaston County Historic Properties
Commission, said Mount Holly's remodeled depot should be a boost for the
community when it completes the improvement projects.

"I think it'll be a real draw," she said. "Sometimes, to save an old
building, it takes the right person to come along. It takes imagination."

Guignard, who has remodeled about 10 old buildings in the Huntersville area,
said the 3,400-square-foot depot caught his eye about four years ago.

"I liked its uniqueness," he said. "I thought it had great potential. I knew
something could happen."

Guignard liked the location when he first saw the depot. But years later, as
Mount Holly developed plans for the Catawba River greenway and other
improvements, "it was just icing on the cake."

Also, the proposed whitewater park will be about a half-mile away from the
depot.

"Personally, I think it's one of the next boom sites" in the region, said
Guignard, who bought the depot and about one acre from CSX railroad for
$49,500.

He and a partner plan to convert the depot into six or seven small-to-medium
offices or retail spaces between 200 to 1,000 square feet.

Crews are already working on a new roof with vintage terra cotta tile.
Wooden floors will be repaired and refurbished.

Guignard is in the process of getting the depot on the National Register of
Historic Places and hopes to have it open for business within 12 to 15
months.

The Mount Holly station, built in 1913-14, is one of only two Gaston
stations left from what became known as one of the great electric
transportation systems in the South. The P&N depot in Belmont has been the
Piedmont Carolinas Railroad Museum since 1988.

Beginning in 1910, Duke Power Co. founder James Buchanan Duke built the
128-mile Piedmont & Northern electric train line in the Carolinas.

The Mount Holly depot hasn't been used since P&N railroad merged with CSX in
1969.

Meanwhile, as Guignard moves ahead with work on the old depot, a local group
is exploring the possibility of running vintage trolleys on the old P&N
railroad track between Mount Holly and Belmont.

Fred Dixon, a volunteer with the Charlotte trolley, said the trolleys would
be based at the new Gaston County visitor center planned for the Interstate
85 Belmont Abbey exit. He hopes the trolley, which would operate on
weekends, could eventually tie in with the Mount Holly depot.

It's just an idea now, but Dixon thinks the trolley would be popular.

"It's just like you being back in the 1920s when the trolley used to run
with the clickety-clack, and rolling back and forth," said Dixon, 54, of
Belmont. "The kids love it."

Dwight Dellinger said the old depot played an important part in local
history and should be saved for future generations.

Still vivid in his memories are the crowds of commuters jammed in the
depot's small waiting room during World War II when gasoline rationing
boosted train ridership. A one-way ride to Charlotte cost 10 cents.

As Dellinger waited for the train in the crowded room heated by a
pot-bellied stove, he planned his Charlotte outing for the day: a movie at
the Carolina Theater on North Tryon Street and shopping downtown "where all
the action was."

The electric train made little noise when it cruised up to the depot and
Dellinger scrambled aboard for a seat.

In his mind, he can still see the tan brick depot the way it was and hopes
it looks the same after the restoration.

"It's a landmark for Mount Holly," Dellinger said. "It feels good to keep it
around."

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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