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677 Craighead St<br>Danville, VA
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4,065
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2006
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7
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1899
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1995
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DAN
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The
Danville, Virginia Amtrak station was built in 1899 from plans drawn by the noted
Southern Railway (US) architect, Frank Milburn. In 1915, a track expansion required that the track be moved 133 feet to the northeast. The station was jacked up on rollers, and crews used mules and stump pullers to roll the building. It is said that the move was done so skillfully that not a single brick was cracked.
In 1922, the building was almost destroyed by fire during a raging snowstorm. Southern Railway rebuilt the building to its original specifications, minus the spire that had formerly graced its roofline.
With the demise of public rail transit, the building fell into disuse, and for years, Amtrak passengers had to walk through an underground tunnel and wait on a platform between the tracks. In 1995, a group of local civic leaders sought federal
ISTEA funding and local contributions to renovate the station. It is now part of the campus of the
Danville Science Center , the first satellite facility of the
Science Museum of Virginia .
