A little too far north
The Red Cross canteen was at the Seaboard Air Line’s Johnson Street station building. There were many such operations like this at major railroad hubs around the country.
Although most SAL passenger trains would call at the Raleigh Union Depot on Dawson, longer through trains between New York and Miami (like the Orange Blossom Special) would stop at Johnson Street to avoid the back-up maneuver. Being a halfway point on the SAL, engines would be handed off for fueling and re-servicing.
During this period, the servicemen were given the chance of getting a shower and a meal. The point of embarkation to join the American Expeditionary Force in Europe would likely have been Camp Stuart in Newport News VA. Otherwise, they would have been shipping out of the Hoboken Port of Embarkation.
The initial pictures in question are from the National Archives.
This view is looking north with the main line to the right. The crowd is blocking the view of the turntable with the tracks behind them being the siding and tail tracks from the turntable, but outside of the round house (which is in view).
Inside the dining hall.
The western/front entrance of the dining hall.
Have some watermelon, boys!
The troop transport of heavyweight passenger coaches has been set out on a siding while awaiting a fresh engine to be delivered via the turntable from the nearby roundhouse (upper left corner). This gave the servicemen time to disembark and take advantage of the hospitality services offered by the Red Cross.
The Sanborn map of the area (1909) shows where the station building was located on the lower left between the larger roundhouse with the still extant turntable and the now-demolished back shop building. Giving a good guess, the Red Cross structures were a little further west, and down the hill from the Johnston Street station building.
And, I’ve tagged the location from Google Maps for a current reference.
As a footnote: American railroads were nationalized as a war emergency during this period to expedite and coordinate the response to shipping and personnel needs. The United States Railroad Administration came into being in 1917 and disbanded back to private control in 1920.
So, with troop sections being under USRA jurisdiction, there likely would have been a pooling of equipment.
Can’t quite make out the road names on the heavyweights. But looking at the original at the National Archives, ‘URLI’ is visible on the coach furthest to the right. So, I’m guessing, ‘BURLINGTON’ which would have been built at the time for service by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad back in the Midwest.
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The structure to the left was the roundhouse which wrapped around the extant turntable (site of the proposed Zimmer tower). Correct on the middle structure with the smokestack being a mill. It was the Martin Hosiery Mill located on the other side of the tracks at the corner of Johnson and McDowell (now replaced by the state’s 414 North Salisbury Garage). The Raleigh Cotton Mill is north of Peace Street and not in frame with this photo.
The Seaboard Station/Logan Trading Company was built in 1942, north of Peace Street, to consolidate passenger operations which had initially been handled by the Johnson Street station and Raleigh Union Depot. The bulk of SAL’s structures in Raleigh became obsolete with dieselization after 1939 and later from the merger with the Atlantic Coast Line railroad in 1967.
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Where are the Pirates?
The other field lol …
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I was going to head over wearing all my Pittsburgh Pirates gear but I got caught up watching football*
*drinking beer
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Imagining this view with the possible 20-40 story RUSbus building(s), eventual Edison lot building, 121 Fayetteville, whatever eventually goes up on the Goodwill lot, and the eventual CAM/HQ redevelopment… Raleigh will become pretty dense!!!
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I really like this composition. Thanks for sharing all these.
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Makes one wish for the old Gothic prison buildings. At least these or so bland as to nearly disappear.
This is from the state archives’ flicker page, I think it might be pretty close to the RUS. Its pretty funny, I did not know how much the Bloomsbury looks like the old CP.
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That’s actually pretty crazy!
According to this Reddit post (which cites an arborist as the original source), this very old tree in Nash Square will be coming down next week.
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I’m the first one to be happy about trees coming down and development happening, but I know this tree. Actually makes me a little sad
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