Captain Worley
08-28-2009, 10:14 AM
http://www.thecolumbiastar.com/news/2009/0417/travel/035.html
Preserving history and enriching lives in the Lower Richland Heritage Corridor is the declared mission of South East Rural Community Outreach (SERCO). Certainly restoring the Hopkins train depot to its former glory and rightful place would be a plus to tourism in the Lower Richland Heritage Corridor and a deep personal satisfaction to Marie Barber Adams, SERCO chair, and me. We have grown to love the depot from the stories our 88- year- old relative, Johnny Barber, has told us of how busy the train operations were in the 1930s in the downtown Village of Hopkins.
Marie and I visited Father Jeffrey Meadowcroft at Saint John's Episcopal Church, Congaree, this past December to collect photos for SERCO's annual heritage calendar. As we were leaving, we reminded Father Meadowcroft of SERCO's upcoming Annual Holiday Taste & Tour event.
I lamented that we were disappointed because Norfolk- Southern Corporation would not be supplying its exhibit car nor would they be able to have an excursion train depart from Columbia to Hopkins for the event.
Since the depot was gone and since the railroad operation was the heart of the downtown Village of Hopkins in the late 1930s, having some type of participation from the rail company would have greatly enhanced our upcoming heritage event.
Father Meadowcroft said he knew where a depot now sits and directed us to the Wavering Place plantation.
Wavering Place, a cotton plantation, has been in the ancestral Adams family since 1760. The main structure was built in 1854. We drove down a curved driveway lined with tall, slender cedars. This was the plantation on which my Scott and Adams ancestors were enslaved?
At the back of the well- preserved and majestic plantation home was the remaining slave cabin, servants' quarters, and the old outdoor kitchen. And there sat the old train depot far off in a field resting on cinder blocks.
Paige Peters, an Adams family member, greeted us. We asked Paige about the structure sitting over in the field.
She said, "Oh, that's the old train depot," Marie and I l knew it had to be the old Hopkins Depot. Paige said Dr. Julian Adams purchased the depot to save it from destruction with the intention of one day restoring it. (An article on Dr. Adams can be found a t http://gardenandgun.com /article/flower- doctor).
We produced Johnny Barber's sketch and compared it to the structure. We wanted to seize the depot and take it back to the downtown Village of Hopkins where it belongs.
As we drove back down that long driveway, I felt every bump my ancestors might have felt while traveling in a horse- drawn board wagon. I also felt a deep sadness as I looked back toward the depot. It did not belong there, sitting alone in that field. While it was worn and boards were fallen, it was beautiful to us.
A week or so later, Marie called, "I have good news and bad news about the depot." Dr. Julian Adams said he would indeed be interested in efforts to see the depot restored, but he needed to tell us that this was not the Hopkins Depot but rather the Congaree Depot.
Norfolk- Southern later forwarded a photo of the Hopkins Depot and reported that it burned on October 16, 1945.
That photo and Johnny Barber's sketch are almost exact and do not match the Congaree Depot that still remains. The windows and doors of Hopkins and Congaree depots were not constructed the same.
Traveling from Columbia, turning right onto Lower Richland Boulevard and left onto Air Base Road, just after crossing the railroad tracks, one may drive to Grovewood and Wavering Place Plantations. Our calculations are that the old Congaree train depot was located along the left side of Air Base Road, no more than two miles past Wavering Place. We locals would add the instruction that "if you get to Elm Savannah Road, then you've gone too far.
The Congaree Depot sits in the field. It needs to be restored and placed along the train tracks for the sake of historical preservation and as a wonderful enhancement to tourism in the Lower Richland Heritage corridor.
http://i26.tinypic.com/ekhyd0.jpg
Preserving history and enriching lives in the Lower Richland Heritage Corridor is the declared mission of South East Rural Community Outreach (SERCO). Certainly restoring the Hopkins train depot to its former glory and rightful place would be a plus to tourism in the Lower Richland Heritage Corridor and a deep personal satisfaction to Marie Barber Adams, SERCO chair, and me. We have grown to love the depot from the stories our 88- year- old relative, Johnny Barber, has told us of how busy the train operations were in the 1930s in the downtown Village of Hopkins.
Marie and I visited Father Jeffrey Meadowcroft at Saint John's Episcopal Church, Congaree, this past December to collect photos for SERCO's annual heritage calendar. As we were leaving, we reminded Father Meadowcroft of SERCO's upcoming Annual Holiday Taste & Tour event.
I lamented that we were disappointed because Norfolk- Southern Corporation would not be supplying its exhibit car nor would they be able to have an excursion train depart from Columbia to Hopkins for the event.
Since the depot was gone and since the railroad operation was the heart of the downtown Village of Hopkins in the late 1930s, having some type of participation from the rail company would have greatly enhanced our upcoming heritage event.
Father Meadowcroft said he knew where a depot now sits and directed us to the Wavering Place plantation.
Wavering Place, a cotton plantation, has been in the ancestral Adams family since 1760. The main structure was built in 1854. We drove down a curved driveway lined with tall, slender cedars. This was the plantation on which my Scott and Adams ancestors were enslaved?
At the back of the well- preserved and majestic plantation home was the remaining slave cabin, servants' quarters, and the old outdoor kitchen. And there sat the old train depot far off in a field resting on cinder blocks.
Paige Peters, an Adams family member, greeted us. We asked Paige about the structure sitting over in the field.
She said, "Oh, that's the old train depot," Marie and I l knew it had to be the old Hopkins Depot. Paige said Dr. Julian Adams purchased the depot to save it from destruction with the intention of one day restoring it. (An article on Dr. Adams can be found a t http://gardenandgun.com /article/flower- doctor).
We produced Johnny Barber's sketch and compared it to the structure. We wanted to seize the depot and take it back to the downtown Village of Hopkins where it belongs.
As we drove back down that long driveway, I felt every bump my ancestors might have felt while traveling in a horse- drawn board wagon. I also felt a deep sadness as I looked back toward the depot. It did not belong there, sitting alone in that field. While it was worn and boards were fallen, it was beautiful to us.
A week or so later, Marie called, "I have good news and bad news about the depot." Dr. Julian Adams said he would indeed be interested in efforts to see the depot restored, but he needed to tell us that this was not the Hopkins Depot but rather the Congaree Depot.
Norfolk- Southern later forwarded a photo of the Hopkins Depot and reported that it burned on October 16, 1945.
That photo and Johnny Barber's sketch are almost exact and do not match the Congaree Depot that still remains. The windows and doors of Hopkins and Congaree depots were not constructed the same.
Traveling from Columbia, turning right onto Lower Richland Boulevard and left onto Air Base Road, just after crossing the railroad tracks, one may drive to Grovewood and Wavering Place Plantations. Our calculations are that the old Congaree train depot was located along the left side of Air Base Road, no more than two miles past Wavering Place. We locals would add the instruction that "if you get to Elm Savannah Road, then you've gone too far.
The Congaree Depot sits in the field. It needs to be restored and placed along the train tracks for the sake of historical preservation and as a wonderful enhancement to tourism in the Lower Richland Heritage corridor.
http://i26.tinypic.com/ekhyd0.jpg