RICHMOND, Va. — You may have passed by the deserted landmark countless times and not looked twice. For good reason. As Robin Hood and Hermitage historian Selden Richardson says, the glory days have gone off the rails.
“Why did this building have to end up like this,” says Richardson. “It is a pretty sad sight. The roof is in pretty bad shape. And it doesn’t take a building inspector to figure out what’s going on here.”
The historian is sounding the alarm about the future of a 114-year-old structure.
“This is the former Westham train station built in 1911,” says Richardson. “It really was a full service facility in a small package.”
For more than 50 years, the station sat next to the C&O tracks near the Huguenot Bridge. Westham helped move passengers and freight in an out of central Virginia.
”These buildings are not just warehouses. These really are part of our fabric they are part of our history,” says Richardson.
In the early 60s, volunteers with civic groups moved the wooden building to this spot for its second act. Part of Traveland wedged between Parker Field and the interstate Westham served as the gateway to the River City.
“This was your introduction to Richmond,” says Richardson. “There were locomotives sitting here. There was a playground. A little park surrounding this whole thing. It really must’ve quite meant something.”
Thousands of tourists pouring through the repurposed station.
“Buildings like this are a repository of memory and evocative of memory,” says Richardson.
When the visitors center moved out in the 1990s, dilapidation moved in and hasn’t left.
Doug Riddell says the wooden building’s current state hurts.
“I just want to cry. The Westham Station is one of my oldest memories,” says Riddell. “Westham station is where my grandmother came in to Richmond.”
The former engineer and photographer for Amtrak says the simple structure represents an era when the trains moved Americans and powered a nation. Decades before highways and air travel as we know it.
“In a way there is a general loss of awareness of what the railroads meant,” says Riddell.
Selden Richardson says the city owned Westham is a classic case of demolition by neglect.
“This is a pattern of behavior where a negligent owner will allow a property to become so derelict deliberately, but it has to be torn down,” says Richardson.
The Richmond native laments the slow death of such an important link that ties us to our roots on rail.
“This is what makes history rich. It’s not the spoken word and it’s not the printed word. It is the ability to see the fabric of the history. The fabric of the past,” says Richardson. “The condition of the building is what you get when you don’t maintain a building for 20 years.”
For now this station from bygone days is crumbling in plain site. The author says if the City of Richmond will not rescue Westham it should be sold to someone who will.
“When we lose these anchor points in our history. I think we lose a whole lot as a society and it makes history seem theoretical,” says Richardson.
The author who played a role in saving the Leigh Street Armory envisions the same scenario playing out at Westham.
“I would like to see it moved and restored to its original appearance,” says Richardson.
Riddell says if more Virginians knew the building’s back story a preservation effort may gather steam. But for now, Westham is wasting away.
“It has lost its purpose. Most people couldn’t tell you or had no idea that that was originally a train station,” says Riddell. “The romance of the railroad has been lost as the old buildings disappear.”
If nothing is done to shore up the century old building, Riddell fears Westham Station may regrettably reach the end of the line.
“Because again it is a part of transportation, history. Local transportation history.”
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky| Facebook| Instagram| X| Threads| TikTok| YouTube
