Meadowview on the move...

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Meadowview station no longer stationary

By Mike Pierry Jr./Special to the Bristol Herald Courier

Caption (picture at link below): A train rolls past the Meadowview Train Station in Meadowview, Va.

By Debra Mccown 
Published: September 18, 2010 

MEADOWVIEW, Va. – The community of Meadowview is a lot like its old train depot, which, decades after passenger trains stopped running, still sits on the square.

“It’s the same place,” said Tal Stanley, chairman of the board for Meadowview First, the community association that owns the depot and has embarked on an ambitious community renewal effort. “We’re just trying to put a new foundation under it.”

After gaining approval from the railroad and the county government, Meadowview has put the depot up on skids and rollers, preparing for an inch-by-inch move to a new spot 20 feet farther from the tracks.

The $60,000 move will be a long, slow process, Stanley said – not unlike the old farming community’s effort to refurbish, revitalize and re-invent itself.

So far, a community center and clinic owned by Meadowview First has been built on what, four short years ago, was a weeded lot on the town square. 

In a separate effort spearheaded by others in the community, a restaurant and general store opened in buildings next door. The Meadowview Farmers’ Guild store and the Harvest Table Restaurant specialize in local products grown and produced in the Meadowview area.

Stanley said the clinic, which opened in 2007, is seeing more than 700 patients a month and the community center’s facility rentals are generating revenue for development efforts. Literacy and GED classes also are being held in the center.

Four years ago, with the projects still in the planning stage, a lot of people said it couldn’t be done, said Ned Hayter, a board member for Meadowview First who ran several different businesses out of the old depot over the years before selling it to the community association for $5,000 in 2006.

“All the buildings were just about ready to fall down,” Hayter said, “and at this time we have a country store, a nice restaurant, and Meadowview First has built a community center and medical center.”

Hayter, who was born here in 1929, said Meadowview still doesn’t look as it did in its heyday, with crowded streets and all kinds of businesses on and around the square. But he’s hopeful that in the coming years more buildings can be renovated.

Stanley sees a similar vision, of Meadowview people employed in Meadowview jobs, as families come to enjoy a sustainable downtown. He said Meadowview’s market niche is its agricultural heritage, and that is at the heart of the planning process to revitalize the square.

Right now, the focus is on the depot, which must be moved outside the railroad right-of-way and is being put on property ceded by the railroad so long as it remains a community building.

The depot’s new use hasn’t been decided yet, Stanley said, but several things have been suggested, including a retail venue and a performance venue, all geared toward economic development.

Hayter said one thought is a creamery, which could process local milk for local schools and colleges.

“Of course we have other things in mind. We’re not sure yet what we’ll come up with,” Hayter said. But, he added, “We’d like to keep as many local farmers involved as we can in what we do in Meadowview.”

dmccown at bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701

Source: http://www2.tricities.com/news/2010/sep/18/meadowview-station-no-longer-stationary-ar-511965/

As of:  September 18, 2010

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