Boyce, Virginia depot

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Retired train station keeps railway mail history alive
Posted: January 14, 2013
By Val Van Meter
The Winchester Star
BOYCE — When it was built in 1913, the Boyce railroad
station was “like putting Dulles Airport in your backyard. It was your gateway
to the world,” said the building’s current owner, Frank Scheer of Alexandria.
The station, no longer in use, marks its 100th
anniversary this year.
Though Norfolk-Southern trains pass regularly through the
town, population 589, none of them stops these days. The station closed in
1959.
But the station still has a purpose: It’s home to the
Railway Mail Service Library, a repository for the history and artifacts of the
era when trains delivered mail as well as freight and passengers to stops along
their routes.
Scheer bought the station in 2003, although the land it
sits on still belongs to the railroad.
A purchasing and supply management specialist for the
U.S. Postal Service, Scheer has dedicated years to collecting the history of
how trains assisted the mail service.
And what better place for a museum dedicated to the days
when mail was moved and sorted on the train than a train station?
“It ties in very well,” he said.
Mail used to arrive at the station, Scheer said, and mail
clerks worked about train cars, sorting and directing the flow of
communication.
When the Boyce station was desegregated by the railroad
in 1955, the larger of its two waiting rooms was rented to the U.S. Post Office
Department. 
Boyce residents were served there until a new post office
was built in 1984.
The current Boyce station is only three years younger
than the town it served.
Boyce grew up along the intersection of the Berry’s Ferry
Turnpike and the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, which had a station there in the
1880s.
The Norfolk & Western Railway bought out Shenandoah
Valley in 1890 and began a series of improvements in the early 1900s, construct
a new railroad passenger station in 1912, but the young town of Boyce wasn’t
satisfied with the modest wooden building the N&W planned.
P.H. Mayo persuaded the N&W to put up a “first class”
station, Scheer said.
The building had masonry construction with a stucco
finish, electric lighting, central heating and inside rest rooms, in addition
to 14-foot ceilings and clerestory windows for better air circulation in the
summer.
Local residents Hattie Gilpin and R. Powell Page joined
Mayo in putting up an additional $17,500, to make $25,000 available to build
the station.
A Richmond resident, Mayo was a large landowner east of
Boyce. He and his brother owned the American Tobacco brand and manufactured
cigarettes in the state capital.
Moneyed landowners were willing to spend money on
amenities they were going to use, Scheer said — they could get on the train in
Boyce at midnight, go to sleep and wake up in New York.
In addition to the many cars full of freight that came
into and left Boyce, Scheer said there were special express cars used for
taking Clarke County’s expensive horses to races and shows on the East Coast.
At least one home in Boyce arrived in pieces at the
station and was moved west on Main Street to be erected on a south side lot.
Brick for some of the larger homes also came to Boyce by
rail, Scheer said.
The station offered other services as well.
“There was Railway Express — the equivalent of UPS today
— so you could pick up packages at the station,” Scheer said.
Telegram also could be sent from the station via Western
Union.
In honor of the founder of Morse code, Samuel Morse, an
open house will be held at the station on April 27, with an Internet interface
set up so that the old telegraph equipment can be used again to send messages.
“We’re going to show people how to do telegraphy and have
a cookout,” Scheer said.
The event is free and open to the public.
In October, Scheer will hold a celebration to mark the
building’s 100th anniversary. He’s still working out the details.
“If I look this good when I’m 100 years old, I’ll feel
pretty good,” Scheer said of the station, which was built by John P. Pettyjohn
& Company.
Where Scheer lives in Alexandria, he said he can feel the
vibration of a train for blocks around.
Inside the Boyce station, even with trains passing right
outside the walls, “you can sit in here and there’s almost no vibration,” he
said.
Though it needs some cosmetic fixes, the core of the
building is “built like a rock,” he said. “The railroad typically
over-engineered anyway.” 
Since the station closed on Jan. 1, 1959, it has been a
storage place, a charity operation, a restaurant and a woodworking shop, but
its floor plan remains basically unchanged.
Scheer has collected original N&W furniture to
replicate the station master’s office at Boyce.
The N&W had its own carpentry shop in Roanoke, he
said, and made and marked all the furniture used in its stations “so people
wouldn’t steal it.”
He also has acquired a photograph of Station Master
Sylvester M. Lane sitting in his office at the station in 1934.
Lane was one of four agents assigned to the station
during its 45 years in operation. Morton J. Dunlap and T.M. Sheetz preceded
Lane and L.C. Murray followed him. Scheer said Dunlap was also a member of the
Boyce Town Council.
Scheer hasn’t been able to find the exact date when the
Boyce station opened.
“Maybe, someday, we’ll be able to figure that out,” he
said.
Construction started in the spring of 1913, so by October
of that year, he said it should have been substantially completed. 
“If anyone has more information, I’d love to know,”
Scheer said.
To contact Scheer, email him at
fscheer at railwaymailservicelibrary.orgor call 540-837-9046.
— Contact Val Van Meter at vvanmeter at winchesterstar.com
Captions: (see article for images)
An antique calendar clock hangs on a wall inside the
Boyce train station. (Photo by Jeff Taylor/The Winchester Star)
Frank Scheer of Alexandria poses outside the Boyce train
station, which he bought in 2003. The station - home to the Railway Mail
Service Library - will celebrate its 100th anniversary later this year. (Photo
by Jeff Taylor/The Winchester Star)
Scheer is restoring the station master's office in the
Boyce station.
 
Source: http://www.winchesterstar.com/article/retired_train_station_keeps_railway_mail_history_alive
As of: January 14, 2013     
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