Lee Hall Depot is a historic

train station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing suc ...

and museum located in the Lee Hall neighborhood of

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an Independent city (United States), independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the List of c ...

. It was built in about 1881, with a one-story cargo bay, and the two-story main section was added in 1893. Another one-story wing was added by the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...

to the north end of the depot in 1918 to handle an influx of military personnel to

Fort Eustis Fort Eustis is a United States Army installation in Newport News, Virginia. In 2010, it was combined with nearby Langley Air Force Base to form Joint Base Langley–Eustis. The post is the home to the United States Army Training and Doctrin ...

. The building is currently in use as a local history museum, focusing on the station's history, and the history of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in Warwick County.

History

Station use

Lee Hall Depot was built around 1881 as a part of the

Peninsula Extension The Peninsula Extension which created the Peninsula Subdivision of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) was the new railroad line on the Virginia Peninsula from Richmond to southeastern Warwick County. Its principal purpose was to provide ...

of the

, being the most Western part of the Warwick County region of the expansion. It connected the Warwick Courthouse with the stations at Williamsburg and Yorktown, along with other stations on the peninsula. On October 19, 1881, the first passenger train to depart from Newport News left the station and arrived at Yorktown for the ‘Cornwallis Surrender Centennial Celebration”, a commemoration of the British defeat at the

Battle of Yorktown The siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown and the surrender at Yorktown, was the final battle of the American Revolutionary War. It was won decisively by the Continental Army, led by George Washington, with support from the Mar ...

, via temporary track. After this, it was mostly used to ship agricultural products from nearby farms. The two-story midsection was added in 1893. A large waiting room was added in 1918 to help deal with an increase in soldiers, other military personnel, and supplies being shipped out from and taken to the nearby Camp Abraham Eustis, now

, giving the building its current two-story midsection and pair of wings. The ticket office was heavily remodeled in 1932. To help supplement the cargo bay, which was overflowing due to supplies being shipped in and out for the war effort, a storage shed (now demolished) was built in 1943. The office used by the station's Railway Express Agent was removed between 1955 and 1956, and after that the depot was used for passenger service by the

until

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

took over service on May 1, 1971. Amtrak resumed service to Lee Hall, albeit as a

request stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a bus stop, stop or train station, station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or drop ...

, with the '' Colonial'' on October 30, 1977. Starting in 1978, the waiting room was leased to the 'Peninsula Model Railroad Club' to house their

N scale N scale is a popular model railway scale. Depending upon the manufacturer (or country), the scale ranges from 1:148 to 1:160. Effectively the scale is 1:159, 9 mm to , which is the width of standard gauge railway. However the scale may ...

model railway. In 1981, to celebrate the centenary of the peninsular extension, the depot was renovated and some celebrations took place there on October 16, 1981. Among the festivities at the depot were the unveiling of a large oil painting created by Sidney King of the first trip from Lee Hall to Yorktown, Chesapeake and Ohio 614 and an Amtrak locomotive both giving brief train rides, ending at the station, and two "Silver Spike" reenactments by CSX and Virginia officials. The event was attended by Virginia's governor, John N. Dalton, the then President of CSX, Hays T. Watkins, French dignitaries, and the Member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Virginia's 1st district,

Paul Trible Paul Seward Trible Jr. (born December 29, 1946) is an American attorney, politician and academic administrator. Trible was the president of Christopher Newport University from 1996 until his retirement in 2022. A Republican, he represented Virgin ...

. Lee Hall was dropped from the Colonial, now renamed to ''New England Express'', in April 1995, after which, the building was used as a railcar maintenance facility. The Lee Hall Train Station Foundation was founded in 2000 to help preserve the building; due to this, the Peninsula Model Railroad Club moved out of the building in 2001.

Restoration

A $3 million grant was awarded to Newport News to restore the building in 2005, of which $600,000 was used to restore the outside of the building.

Relocation

In 2009, Lee Hall Depot was moved 165 feet from its original location to the opposite side of the tracks to meet 1993 requirements that had to be met to prevent the depot from being demolished by the CSX Railroad. The process involved carefully splitting the building into two sections, one being the waiting room wing, and the other the cargo bay and mid-section, and then joining them together on a new foundation. The process was undertaken by PMA Designs, Expert House Movers, and the City of Newport News at a cost of $900,000.

Completion

The Lee Hall Depot was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in November, 2010 during its restoration. The exterior renovations were completed in 2014. In September 2015, the Lee Hall Train Station Foundation received a $600,000 federal grant to pay for the building's interior refurbishment. The museum had a

soft opening A soft launch, also known as a soft opening, is a preview release of a product or service to a limited audience prior to the general public. Soft-launching a product is sometimes used to gather data or customer feedback, prior to making it wid ...

in June 2021, but officially opened in July of that year.

Architecture

The Lee Hall Depot was built in stages, to a standardized design used for all Chesapeake and Ohio Railway freight houses. Its construction began sometime in 1881. The initial building was a simple one-story freight depot building measuring by , with five double sliding doors along the freight platform. In 1893 a two-story section with a trackside pentagonal facade was added to the building. It had an office for the operator, a baggage room, and space for the

Railway Express Agency Railway Express Agency (aka REA Express) (REA), founded as the American Railway Express Agency and later renamed the American Railway Express Inc., was a national package delivery service that operated in the United States from 1918 to 1975. REA ...

. The upstairs section contained a four-room living accommodation for the stationmaster. The wood frame depot and addition were detailed using

Stick style The Stick style was a late-19th-century American architectural style, transitional between the Carpenter Gothic style of the mid-19th century, and the Queen Anne style that it had evolved into by the 1890s. It is named after its use of linear " ...

applied elements. A more ambitious design for the 1918 additions included substantial Stick style detailing of overhangs and surfaces, but was built with more restraint. The 1918 section included a ticket office situated between separate waiting rooms; one for white passengers, and a smaller one for "colored" passengers. This section's interior was finished in beaded wood paneling. The operator's bay had an indoor water well, which was accessible through a trapdoor in the floor.

Collection, displays, and exhibits

Caboose

In June 2018, the Lee Hall Train Station Foundation was donated CSXT 900066, originally C&O 904144, a type-C27A bay-window caboose by the

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

for display. The caboose, which was built for the C&O by Fruit Growers Express at their

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

repair shop in 1980, had been in use as a shoving platform, a type of railroad car used when trains have to reverse for a long period of time, as a place at the "front" for the switcher crew to stand, but was decommissioned after it was discovered to have a brake defect, and slated to be scrapped. After being contacted by the Lee Hall Train Station Foundation, and initially turning them down, CSX decided to donate the caboose to the museum. After the donation, the car was moved to the U.S. Army Transportation Museum and restored by a large group of volunteers at a cost of $18,262. It was then donated to the City of Newport News, due to the fact that the foundation could not afford the $5 million liability insurance required to have the caboose moved by rail. The caboose was delivered to the depot by the Fort Eustis Military Railroad, and placed on a piece of display track, originally a siding for the station, by crane on May 19, 2022. The caboose is currently open for tours on Saturdays and during special events.

Hospital Car

The Lee Hall Train Station Foundation is currently restoring an hospital car built in 1944 used at the nearby

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

; the car was formerly owned by the U.S. Army Transportation Museum. Once the restoration is completed, the car will be moved to the museum grounds and put on display on the exhibition track next to the caboose.

Model Trains

The cargo bay contains a large collection of model trains, of which most are in

O gauge O scale (or O gauge) is a scale commonly used for toy trains and rail transport modelling. Introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad sca ...

. The collection is kept in several large display cases, which also contain plaques and signs. The collection was donated to the museum by former Lee Hall Train Station Foundation president, Milton "Ed" Lyon.

Stationmaster's quarters

Lee Hall is unique among railway stations in that the second story of its main body was where the stationmaster would live, along with his family if he had one; stationmasters were often bachelors. It housed a parlor, kitchen, and bedroom. These rooms have been recreated as so to give an idea of what these rooms might have looked like during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

, along with interpretive signs attached to plastic barriers giving context as to what the rooms were and how they were used. Inside is period furniture, cookware, toys, décor, clothes, and other objects, along with C&O memorabilia, which is also of the time. The only pieces original to the station are the porcelain sink and water heater. This space is often fitted out to house other temporary and smaller exhibits.

Simulator

The Lee Hall Depot owns a wooden "replica" of a C&O diesel locomotive cab that is used to simulate driving a modern-day locomotive. It uses a locomotive control stand taken from an actual engine, with the switches and levers connected to a computer system attached to the back of the simulator. The brake valves were donated by Multi-Service Supply Inc. of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. A TV screen stands in as the front window and plays footage of a train journey from Williamsburg to Newport News. This simulator was built by museum volunteers.

Chessie’s Place

“Chessie’s Place” is the children's area of the museum, focusing on

Chessie Chessie may refer to: *Chessie (sea monster), a legendary monster supposedly living in Chesapeake Bay, US *Chessie System, a former holding company of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) *Chessie (mascot), a kitten mascot of the C&O * ''Chessie' ...

, the mascot of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. It contains toy and model trains, informational signs and pamphlets, a

wooden toy train Wooden toy trains are toy trains that run on a wooden track system with grooves to guide the wheels of the rolling stock. While the trains, tracks and scenery accessories are made mainly of wood, the engines and cars connect to each other usin ...

table, musical instruments, story books, arts and crafts, and other activities.

Gallery

File:Lee Hall Station, Newport News, VA.JPG, alt=Lee Hall Depot in October 2007, early into its refurbishment and pre-relocation. The station is overgrown with foliage., Lee Hall Depot in October 2007, early into its refurbishment and pre-relocation. File:LeeHallDepot.JPG, alt=, The Lee Hall Depot in 2006; the building is overrun with grime and vines. File:Virginia (11458950623).jpg, alt=The side of the Lee Hall Depot's waiting room in September 2013. The windows are still boarded up and the foundation unfinished. A bush and a railroad sign stand in the foreground., The side of the Lee Hall Depot's waiting room in September 2013. The windows are still boarded up and the foundation unfinished. File:Lee Hall Depot (1881), under restoration.jpg, alt=, A photo of the depot during its restoration, with the post-relocation foundation visible. The foundation is made from bricks and covered in weatherboard. File:Lee Hall Station, Newport News, Virginia, U.S.A.; view in June 2020.jpg, alt=, The museum's display track, a year before opening File:Lee Hall Station (15883700568).jpg, alt=, Detail of the waiting room’s exterior end, displaying the building’s characteristic overhangs and support brackets. File:Ticket office - Lee Hall Depot Newport News Va.jpg, alt=, The ticket office as seen in the museum. File:LeeHallC&OCaboose.jpg, The depot's caboose while decorated for

Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...

, with a skeleton inside.

References

External links

*
Facebook page

Lee Hall Depot
a
newport-news.org

Restoration specifications
{{Authority control, state=autocollapse Former Chesapeake and Ohio Railway stations Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Queen Anne architecture in Virginia Railroad museums in Virginia Railway stations in the United States opened in 1881 National Register of Historic Places in Newport News, Virginia 1881 establishments in Virginia Buildings and structures in Newport News, Virginia Museums established in 2021 Museums in Newport News, Virginia Transportation in Virginia Transportation in Newport News, Virginia Landmarks in Virginia