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The Quest To Form a Railroad Museum
Display already set up in High Springs
By Emily Fuggetta
HIGH SPRINGS - A Chamber of Commerce building shaped like a train depot on Northeast Railroad Avenue. A caboose on display behind City Hall. Tracks cutting a pass through town, overgrown from years without use but refusing to disappear completely.
Here, where the railroad industry once roared but now barely whispers, the evidence is subtle-but those who look closely will notice something about High Springs.
This was a train town.
Once a bustling hub of booming industry, High Springs hasn’t been home to a functional rail since the late 1980s.
But more than a century of history doesn’t simply vanish, and a group of residents is working to unearth the city’s history and make sure High Springs roots aren’t forgotten.
Bob Watson grew up fascinated by trains in Pennsylvania and began constructing models. Eventually, his Philadelphia basement was filled with small trains - but in the late 1980s when he moved to Florida, where basements are a rarity, he temporarily gave up his model building.
But soon after Watson, now 59, moved to High Springs and opened his recycling store, Global Green Vision at Northwest Ninth Street and Northwest First Avenue, he discovered the building was located in the heart of what used to be High Springs Railroad Center, and his passion for trains came back to life.
Using a map donated by another resident, he began exploring the area that was once a bustling railroad center - it runs parallel to First Avenue, and the main cluster sat half a mile from Main Street, with a passenger station near Railroad Avenue and Ninth Street.
From the 1880s until nearly 100 years later, Watson said High Springs was a major hub for the region’s railroad industry.
“Everything was related to the rail,” he said.
Now, the Land belongs to the C S X Transportation Company but Watson hopes the corporation will allow the area to be cleaned up for tours.
“We want to be able to say, here it is – what’s left of it,” he said of the presently overgrown stretch that used to be the heart of High Springs.
Long hikes through the wooded area along Railroad Avenue uncovered antiquities like water tower bases, control towers, the site of what was a hospital and an enormous roundhouse used to bring trains into the shop for service.
From his own explorations of the area and contributions from other residents, he’s collected old railroad ties, wood from the buildings, ticket stubs, photographs, maps, shelves full of bottles and glass collected from near the tracks, and other relics.
He displays the memorabilia in his shop window and in a miniature Museum in the center of the store.
There is much local interests, he said, and recently, Watson, along with about 10 committed members and 20 more who expressed interest, have gathered into an informal High Springs Railroad Club, where train aficionados gather to talk about the history of trains in High Springs, as well as the possibility of a future tribute to the system.
City Commissioner Dean Davis, 73, who grew up in High Springs and witnessed its railroad history firsthand, helped form the club. He and Watson hope the city will soon open a museum of its own.
For many High Springs residents, Davis said, the railroad is more than the city’s history - it’s their own.
For much of the 20th century, Davis said, “everyone either worked for the railroad or worked for someone who worked for the railroad.”
He remembers how prominent the system still was when he was growing up during the 40s and 50s though its glory days stretch back to the 1880s.
“The town of High Springs built up around the railroad,” he said. ”The railroad didn’t come because of High Springs. This town wouldn’t be here without the railroad.”
Davis and Watson, along with High Springs resident Pete Woodward, are planning a model of the city system for Plantation Oaks, High Springs new assisted living facility.
The center, which opened in March, will showcase a small scale replica of High Springs Railroad system, design based on Watson’s research, as well as a toy train that will run around the top of the room, possibly with controls so residents can interact with the display.
Davis, Watson and the owner of Plantation Oaks plan to meet this week with Woodward, who has a 25 x 30’ model system in his High Springs home, to get ideas for the model.
Woodward, who got his first toy train - an American Flyer steam locomotive - as a gift from his father in 1948, built his own system based on High Springs as well as other famous railroads like the Grand Central Railroad in New York.
“There’s an aspect of fantasy along with realism,” he said.
The Plantation Oaks display will be a replica of High Springs system.
Howard Minzenberg, executive director of Plantation Oaks, said some of his residents have strong ties to the system, such as having worked on the rail themselves or having family members who did, and are excited about having a piece of history in their home.
“When you put 30 or 40 years into something, you’re pretty proud of it,” he said.
The group hopes the tribute will go a step further - there have been discussions of a city-owned Railroad Museum.
Davis said in the past, similar private endeavors have failed, and a city–run building would be more reliable. That way, Davis said, people who loaned items for display could be assured their things would be returned.
For now, the museum is a dream. Davis said staffing could be an issue, and the building’s construction would require planning time and funding, which would likely come from grants.
But despite the challenges, the men hope the museum will be in the works soon. Until then, High Springs past will live quietly on in Watson’s shop, in the Plantation Oaks model, in the calm, quiet tracks, and the subtle remnants sprinkled throughout the city and in the memories of its residents.
“We should never forget what we came from,” Davis said.
“History is never over.”
The North Florida Herald
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Display already set up in High Springs
By Emily Fuggetta
HIGH SPRINGS - A Chamber of Commerce building shaped like a train depot on Northeast Railroad Avenue. A caboose on display behind City Hall. Tracks cutting a pass through town, overgrown from years without use but refusing to disappear completely.
Here, where the railroad industry once roared but now barely whispers, the evidence is subtle-but those who look closely will notice something about High Springs.
This was a train town.
Once a bustling hub of booming industry, High Springs hasn’t been home to a functional rail since the late 1980s.
But more than a century of history doesn’t simply vanish, and a group of residents is working to unearth the city’s history and make sure High Springs roots aren’t forgotten.
Bob Watson grew up fascinated by trains in Pennsylvania and began constructing models. Eventually, his Philadelphia basement was filled with small trains - but in the late 1980s when he moved to Florida, where basements are a rarity, he temporarily gave up his model building.
But soon after Watson, now 59, moved to High Springs and opened his recycling store, Global Green Vision at Northwest Ninth Street and Northwest First Avenue, he discovered the building was located in the heart of what used to be High Springs Railroad Center, and his passion for trains came back to life.
Using a map donated by another resident, he began exploring the area that was once a bustling railroad center - it runs parallel to First Avenue, and the main cluster sat half a mile from Main Street, with a passenger station near Railroad Avenue and Ninth Street.
From the 1880s until nearly 100 years later, Watson said High Springs was a major hub for the region’s railroad industry.
“Everything was related to the rail,” he said.
Now, the Land belongs to the C S X Transportation Company but Watson hopes the corporation will allow the area to be cleaned up for tours.
“We want to be able to say, here it is – what’s left of it,” he said of the presently overgrown stretch that used to be the heart of High Springs.
Long hikes through the wooded area along Railroad Avenue uncovered antiquities like water tower bases, control towers, the site of what was a hospital and an enormous roundhouse used to bring trains into the shop for service.
From his own explorations of the area and contributions from other residents, he’s collected old railroad ties, wood from the buildings, ticket stubs, photographs, maps, shelves full of bottles and glass collected from near the tracks, and other relics.
He displays the memorabilia in his shop window and in a miniature Museum in the center of the store.
There is much local interests, he said, and recently, Watson, along with about 10 committed members and 20 more who expressed interest, have gathered into an informal High Springs Railroad Club, where train aficionados gather to talk about the history of trains in High Springs, as well as the possibility of a future tribute to the system.
City Commissioner Dean Davis, 73, who grew up in High Springs and witnessed its railroad history firsthand, helped form the club. He and Watson hope the city will soon open a museum of its own.
For many High Springs residents, Davis said, the railroad is more than the city’s history - it’s their own.
For much of the 20th century, Davis said, “everyone either worked for the railroad or worked for someone who worked for the railroad.”
He remembers how prominent the system still was when he was growing up during the 40s and 50s though its glory days stretch back to the 1880s.
“The town of High Springs built up around the railroad,” he said. ”The railroad didn’t come because of High Springs. This town wouldn’t be here without the railroad.”
Davis and Watson, along with High Springs resident Pete Woodward, are planning a model of the city system for Plantation Oaks, High Springs new assisted living facility.
The center, which opened in March, will showcase a small scale replica of High Springs Railroad system, design based on Watson’s research, as well as a toy train that will run around the top of the room, possibly with controls so residents can interact with the display.
Davis, Watson and the owner of Plantation Oaks plan to meet this week with Woodward, who has a 25 x 30’ model system in his High Springs home, to get ideas for the model.
Woodward, who got his first toy train - an American Flyer steam locomotive - as a gift from his father in 1948, built his own system based on High Springs as well as other famous railroads like the Grand Central Railroad in New York.
“There’s an aspect of fantasy along with realism,” he said.
The Plantation Oaks display will be a replica of High Springs system.
Howard Minzenberg, executive director of Plantation Oaks, said some of his residents have strong ties to the system, such as having worked on the rail themselves or having family members who did, and are excited about having a piece of history in their home.
“When you put 30 or 40 years into something, you’re pretty proud of it,” he said.
The group hopes the tribute will go a step further - there have been discussions of a city-owned Railroad Museum.
Davis said in the past, similar private endeavors have failed, and a city–run building would be more reliable. That way, Davis said, people who loaned items for display could be assured their things would be returned.
For now, the museum is a dream. Davis said staffing could be an issue, and the building’s construction would require planning time and funding, which would likely come from grants.
But despite the challenges, the men hope the museum will be in the works soon. Until then, High Springs past will live quietly on in Watson’s shop, in the Plantation Oaks model, in the calm, quiet tracks, and the subtle remnants sprinkled throughout the city and in the memories of its residents.
“We should never forget what we came from,” Davis said.
“History is never over.”
The North Florida Herald
Thursday, May 5, 2011
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