PETERSBURG, Va. -- When the 170-year-old Petersburg train depot reopens next year following a restoration project, business owners are hopeful it will draw more visitors and customers to the city’s historic Old Towne district.
“One of the reasons why I’m moving from this location to the other location is because of foot traffic,” said Hannah Jones, who owns the Restored Cup coffee shop. “I feel like we’ve come and gone with different businesses so often, that people don’t stay because there is no foot traffic.”
Mark Williams with Petersburg Jewelers said he hopes the historic building will draw visitors to “come down to Petersburg to see what is actually happening...”
With the city allocating more than $2 million into renovating the South Side Rail Depot, which is the oldest train station in Virginia, the possibility of more visitors could be a reality.
However, officials believe the key to attracting tourists would be having the National Park Service open a visitors center for the Petersburg National Battlefield at the train station. If that happened, officials believe it could draw 30,000-40,000 visitors yearly.
Williams said that would be a good news for businesses.
“That would really help us out to get that kind of foot traffic down here," Williams said.
A decade ago the National Park Service was on board with the project, but now there is uncertainty.
“We committed to the project, we just want them to stay committed to it as well,” Petersburg Mayor Sam Parham said.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who visited the depot while it is being restored, believes the Park Service presence would be beneficial to the city and the 2,700 acre park, which features a 16-stop driving tour.
"Think about how they might benefit from having their presence here," Kaine said. "But also this is a big facility, so it’s going to be a multi-use facility. There’s going to be other uses too.”
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More about South Side Rail Road Depot history
The train depot will also offer a new opportunity to tell the history of the city.
“Revolutionary War history, Civil War history, Civil Rights history,” Parham said. “We want it all to start right here, downtown at Southside Depot.”
But for the Park Service to move into the building, funding and an adequate number of people to staff it would be key.
Kaine believes there are various ways to get the funding.
“Whether it’s the Infrastructure Bill or whether it’s a congressional-directed expenditure that we seek on behalf of Petersburg,” Kaine explained.
When the renovation project is expected to wrap up in the first quarter of 2024, the building will be open to the public for the first time in decades.
The depot had vendors inside selling various products in 1993, but when the Aug. 6 tornado hit Old Towne, a major the right-hand side of the depot, was destroyed.
Historians said President Abraham Lincoln traveled by train to Petersburg near the end of the Civil War and possibly got off at Southside Depot and then traveled by horse through what is now Old Towne.
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