The Westham Train Station -- Demolition by Neglect Roars On

The former Westham Train Station, a City-owned property near The Diamond, has now deteriorated to the point the roof has a huge hole in it and rain pours into the interior. This formerly tidy little building has been allowed to become a wreck, and the City of Richmond can’t wait to tear it down.

 

The Westham station in its original location west of the Huguenot Bridge when it was a functioning railroad stop. Photo by J. I. Kelley, from the Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Newsletter, May, 1978.

 

This 1911 train station was moved from its original location near the Huguenot Bridge to its present site in 1963. For years it was impeccably maintained as it served as the Richmond Visitor’s Center and served as an introduction to our city. In 2002 the Visitor’s Center moved downtown to the Richmond Convention Center and the collection of transportation exhibits at the Westham Station site was broken up and its locomotive moved to the Science Museum. The plan was originally to move the station once again to the Science Museum but that never took place leaving the former station abandoned.

 

Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 12, 1963.

 

The Westham station served as the Richmond Visitor’s Center almost 40 years. This postcard image shows the building, which was surrounded by a transportation exhibit as well as providing information about Richmond for visitors coming off the interstate.

Most American towns and cities celebrate these increasingly rare small train stations and repurpose them into municipal assets. In many places like Ashland, the station became a symbol of civic pride and a reference point for the downtown section. In contrast, the City of Richmond allows the Westham Station (now with a perfectly visible collapsing roof) to deteriorate in plain sight of thousands of people driving by on 1-95. Glancing down at the former train station many travelers must recognize its form and wonder what criminally indifferent owner allows this to happen. 

 

The current condition of the roof of the former Westham station, with a hole in the roof and clearly damaged roof trusses.

The City of Richmond has again decided to follow a path of demolition by neglect for this building, allowing it to deteriorate over decades until the point it will no doubt be torn down “in the interest of public safety.” This is precisely the same callous strategy that led to the Leigh Street Armory (the current Black History Museum, now regarded as an architectural gem and major Richmond cultural asset) to remain a roofless ruin in the middle of Jackson Ward for generations. This is the same policy being attempted today by Virginia Union University to rid itself of the former Richmond Memorial Hospital building, which has sadly been allowed to deteriorate for years. Demolition by neglect is a tool used by an indifferent and inept bureaucracy whose policies are as cynical as they are contemptible. The inevitable death sentence of being “unsafe” or a “public hazard” completes the cycle of demolition by neglect and a cultural asset disappears, replaced by a vacant lot.

 

At a minimum this building must be stabilized and made watertight. Then a suitable owner be found, one who can move the building to another location. It has been moved before and can certainly be moved again. And as a note to whoever at the City of Richmond who is responsible for this mess: just give the building away. The evidence of the condition of the former Westham station clearly signals to visitor and taxpayer alike that the present City administration has neither the talent nor the vision to do something with this building other than destroy it, so let somebody else assume ownership. You are obviously incapable.

 

Until that time, however, the City of Richmond needs to accept responsibility for the structure and, in a city that boasts of its historic resources, it needs to protect assets like the Westham station and not deliberately let buildings like this decay and collapse.

 

- Selden