By William “Skip” Deegans
In 1914, Mr. J. R. Cary, superintendent of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad (C&O), arrived in Ronceverte in his private rail car and issued a statement that plans and specifications for a new station in Ronceverte would be presented to the town’s city council for its approval. The new station would replace the wooden one and cost $20,000. Construction was scheduled to begin in January 1915 and was completed that year.
Built of brown brick in a Craftsman-like style, the station was larger than normal for a town the size of Ronceverte. It included a second floor to provide offices for railroad employees, including those for the Greenbrier Division – the rail line that ran from Ronceverte to Durbin, Pocahontas County (now the Greenbrier River rails to trail). In 1916, the Greenbrier Division dispatcher moved from Marlinton to the new station in Ronceverte.
There were 12 daily trains in 1915, including four traveling on the Greenbrier Division branch. Nearly 60,000 passengers were served at the Ronceverte station in 1916. Because of Ronceverte’s location on the C&O’s main line and its commercial activity, sentiment grew to move the County Courthouse from Lewisburg to Ronceverte. It was put to a vote in 1915, and the voters chose to keep the Courthouse in Lewisburg.
Passenger service in Ronceverte came to an end in 1971 when Amtrak took over the C&O’s passenger service. Passenger boarding is still available at the Alderson and White Sulphur Springs stations. Ronceverte’s station was recently conveyed to the Ronceverte community.
Shown in the undated photo is a C&O train that has stopped at the Ronceverte station. Note the the first car shown in the photo is a mail car. Railway mail service existed for over 130 years, and railroad employees would sort the mail as the train traveled. The C&O’s mail service ended in 1967.
Sources: Hinton Daily News, The Independent-Herald, Society of Architecture Historians, wvrails.net.
