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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Terminal Station (Macon, Georgia)
Terminal Station, Macon, Georgia, is a railroad station that was built in 1916, and is located on 5th St. at the end of Cherry St. It was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by architect Alfred T. Fellheimer (1875–1959), prominent for his design of Grand Central Terminal in New York City in 1903. The station building is part of the Macon Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. While no longer an active train station, it has been the location of the Macon Transit Authority bus hub since 2014.

Early history

Col. Robert L. Berner, a prominent Macon attorney and former state legislator, filed a petition on September 28, 1912, with the Georgia Railroad Commission, asking that the railroads calling at Macon be required to erect an adequate union passenger station in Macon. His efforts culminated in the construction of Terminal Station, which was officially opened in 1916.

The Terminal Station building has a limestone exterior, with the main lobby and waiting areas having floors and walls of pink Tennessee marble.

Terminal Station encompassed 13 acres and was owned by the Macon Terminal Company. By the mid-1920s, the station dispatched an estimated 100 arrivals and departures per day. The station was served by the Georgia Railroad, Central of Georgia Railway, Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad, and Southern Railway.

Postcard view of Terminal Station circa 1930
Postcard view of Terminal Station circa 1930

The last trains running from there were the Royal Palm (1970) and the Nancy Hanks (1971). The final run of the Nancy Hanks on April 30, 1971, ended 125 years of intercity rail service in Macon.

A bronze statue of William Morrill Wadley was erected outside the station in 1885, three years after his death.

Notable trains

The Central also operated a Birmingham - Columbus - Savannah night train through the station in the early 1950s.

Recent history

After almost sixty years of service, Terminal Station closed in 1971, and the building remained unused. In 1982, it was purchased by Georgia Power Company and utilized as offices until the 1990s. The City of Macon purchased the Terminal Station in 2002, and funded the restoration of the building. The city council voted in 2014 to give the property to the Macon Transit Authority.

Greyhound Lines announced in July 2019 that it was moving its existing operations in Macon to the Terminal Station. The stated goal for the move was to bring passengers more local transportation options, namely the Macon Transit Authority's bus hub. In 2020, the Terminal Station was used as a filming location for scenes from the award-winning Amazon series The Underground Railroad.

Brosnan Yard

Occupying the former Central of Georgia shop complex just southwest of the Terminal Station is Norfolk Southern's Brosnan Yard. The rail yard was opened in 1967 and named after William Brosnan, then president of Southern Railway. In 2020, it was announced that Brosnan Yard was one of several yards being idled, as part of Norfolk Southern's transition to precision railroading.

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. ^ "Macon Terminal Station". Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage.
  3. ^ "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Macon Historic District (revised)". National Park Service. June 27, 1995. p. 16. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
  4. ^ Gaines, Jim (July 16, 2014). "MTA gets Terminal Station". The Macon Telegraph. Retrieved May 30, 2022.(subscription required)
  5. ^ Terminal Station Opens, April 6, 1917, The Macon Telegraph, Macon, Georgia
  6. ^ Pluta, John (April 25, 2013). "Macon Georgia Terminal Station". Railroadstrains blog.
  7. ^ Official Guide of the Railways. National Railway Publication Company. June 1941.
  8. ^ McKay, Archie (May 1, 1971). "She burnt the wind: Last ride of the Nancy Hanks". The Macon Telegraph. Aboard the Nancy. Archived from the original on September 1, 1999.
  9. ^ Stewart, Dorothy Houseal (Spring 1994). "Survival of the Fittest: William Morrill Wadley and the Central of Georgia Railroad's Coming of Age, 1866-1882". Georgia Historical Quarterly. 78 (1). Georgia Historical Society: 39–65. ISSN 0016-8297. JSTOR 40582984.
  10. ^ "Central of Georgia Railway, Table 4". Official Guide of the Railways. 84 (7). National Railway Publication Company. December 1951.
  11. ^ Kousouris, Abby (July 31, 2019). "'It's all here in the same building:' Greyhound station relocates to Macon Transit hub". 13wmaz.com. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
  12. ^ "Upcoming Amazon series 'The Underground Railroad' features scenes at Macon's Terminal Station". 13wmaz.com. May 11, 2021. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
  13. ^ Kovac Jr., Joe (October 17, 2017). "You may have never seen it, but Macon's Brosnan Yard is a railroad wonder". The Macon Telegraph. Retrieved January 7, 2023.(subscription required)
  14. ^ Stephens, Bill (October 8, 2020). "Norfolk Southern to idle its sixth hump, at yard in Macon, Ga". Trains.com. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
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