Train station celebrating 100 years

SELMA — Selma’s Union Station will celebrate its 100th anniversary July 19-20.

The celebration will begin at 5:30 p.m. Friday with tours of the depot. A private dinner will follow at 6 p.m. at the Selma Civic Center.

The dinner will include a program by Eastern Carolina Rail, a nonprofit outfit promoting a Wilmington-to-Raleigh passenger train route. The state’s Rail Division will provide an update on that passenger rail project, which could include up to three stops daily in Selma.

Among the speakers will be Jason Myers, the DOT’s manager of rail programs, and Gene Merritt, a transportation expert from Wilmington and a principal of Eastern Carolina Rail. Many elected leaders and government officials are expected to attend the dinner.

Federal funds are already in place to evaluate a Wilmington-to-Raleigh corridor. Service could begin a decade from now.

A public celebration of the train station’s 100th anniversary will kick off at 9 a.m. Saturday with a farmers’ market. The day will continue with live music from Wood & Steel, trackless train rides and other activities for kids, a locomotive simulator, community pig picking, hot dogs, watermelon and ice cream. Vendors will offer handmade woodcrafts, cornshuck dolls, metal art, pottery, antiques and loom weaving

The celebration will end at 2 p.m.

Built in 1924, Union Station hosts two Amtrak trains in each direction daily. The Palmetto route connects New York to Savannah, Georgia, and the Carolinian links Charlotte and New York.

The depot originally served Atlantic Coast Line  and Southern Railway. The depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and re-opened for passenger service the same year.

The building underwent a $3.4 million renovation in 2001-2002, and another $2.5 million in renovations wrapped up earlier this year.

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