Etowah NC Heritage
  • Home
  • SPECIAL
    • Virtual Tour of Selected Historic Places
    • History Displays in Etowah & Library Notebooks
    • Etowah Heritage Day 2019 - 130 Years
    • Etowah Treasures Exhibit, Sept/Oct 2019
  • PEOPLE & PLACES
    • Maps
    • Memorabilia
    • Places, Early Homes, Other
    • French Broad River & Valley Views
    • People - early times
    • People - later times
    • People - Gash Family descendants
    • Veterans
  • HIST. I
    • Timeline
    • Formation of Henderson County, est 1838
    • Etowah History Notes - Research To Date
    • 1889 Money, then Etowah
    • Etowah - Creek/Muskogee Translation
    • How Etowah Got Its Name
    • Postmasters 1889 - 1968
    • Etowah Train Depot - 1895 >
      • Trains of Etowah
    • The Railroad - Hendersonville to Toxaway
  • HIST. II
    • 1900 U.S. Census
    • Farms of Early Etowah
    • Historic Etowah High School 1928 - 1960 >
      • 1st Annual 1938 -The Chief
      • Little Chief - Gleanings from
      • Students & Faculty EHS
      • EHS Memorabilia
      • Etowah High School - Memorial Plaque 2014 - HCEHI
    • Historic Schools 1800s - 1928 >
      • Etowah Institute 1911
    • Schools of Nearby Communities
    • Historic Churches
    • Historic Cemeteries >
      • Thomas-Fletcher Cemetery
      • Adopt-A-Cemetery: Thomas-Fletcher
  • HIST. III
    • Sheriff Robert Thomas
    • Civil War Union Monument
    • Orr Cabin Homeplace - early 1800s
    • Mountain Lily - 1881
    • Welsh Colony 1880s
    • Grist Mills
    • Shape Note Traditions
  • HIST. IV
    • Community Fairs 1938-1941, 1950s
    • Stores of Early Etowah
    • McKinna General Store
    • More Business Ads 1938 - 1960+
    • "Etowah Brick" Moland-Drysdale Corp. - 1923
    • Calx Mfg. Company - 1919
    • Camp Peep-Out - 1935
    • Etowah Grange #984 - 1937 >
      • Grange - 25th Anniversary 1937-1962
      • Grange Quilt - 1953
  • HIST. V
    • 1952 - Hatheway Floral Company
    • 1954 - Etowah Lions Club, Park & More
    • 1960s - Growing & Changing
    • 1964 - Etowah / Horse Shoe Volunteer Fire
    • 1966 - Water & Sewer System, Tower
    • 1966 - Etowah Riding Club
    • 1982 - A Library Comes to Etowah
  • Stories
    • Eade Anderson, Reverend
    • Lois Adcock Bayne
    • Emma Louise Curtis Bradley
    • Richard Brown
    • Patricia Bell Cantrell
    • Jerri Whiteside Lambeth
    • Wanda Sumner Love
    • David S. Mallett
    • Opal Dalton Parkinson
    • Jeannie Huggins Revis
    • Glenda Maxwell Simpson
    • Marylin Annette Jones Thomas
    • "The Follies" & "Matilda's Folly"
  • About
 HISTORIC ETOWAH TRAIN DEPOT
​

Established 1895
​SW corner of Old Hwy 64 & Etowah School Rd (at present, a utility corridor next to future Ecusta Trail)

​When was the Depot (Station) building taken down? Sometime between 1965 and 1969, is the best information at present.  Confirmation needed.

The Post Office moved out of the station in 1962, according to Lenoir Ray's "Postmarks."

​Residents who moved to Etowah in 1969 report that the station was not there when they arrived.

​
Would you like to share a story or information about the Etowah Train Station?  Please contact the website.

Read the story of "How Etowah Got Its Name"
In 1937 Southern Railway submitted a request to the State Utilities Commission to discontinue freight operations at the Etowah Depot.  A 200 signature, citizen petition presented by Bruce Drysdale stopped the request.

The following news article was published on August 28, 1937 in "THE STATE" magazine (now, OUR STATE) A Weekly  Survey of North Carolina, p. 20
​
" The State Utilities Commission has under advisement a request by the Southern Railway for permission to discontinue a freight station at Etowah, half way between Hendersonville and Brevard.  Application for the railroad was presented by Superintendent W. F. Cooper of Asheville.  It met bitter opposition headed by Bruce Drysdale of the Moland-Drysdale Corporation at Etowah.  He presented a petition signed by 200 citizens requesting continuance of the freight service which Etowah has enjoyed since 1895.  George A. Gash of Asheville, who said that his father donated land for the station site, declared that removal of the service would retard progress of the community.  The request would not affect passenger service at Etowah. "
Picture
Children walking on Etowah School Rd towards Old 64 railroad crossing. See the roof of Etowah Train Station and diamond shaped window ahead on left behind train.

Picture
Etowah Train Depot (Station) circa 1920s, between the main line and secondary tracks - Standing in the doorway is Pearl Gillie Gash, station agent (1916 to 1948) and postmaster (1914 to 1948). ​

PictureLocation of the former Etowah Train Depot, SW corner of Old Hwy 64 & Etowah School Road, next to Chrisman's Garage. Aerial, Henderson County GIS.
The station was originally established in 1895 by the Hendersonville & Brevard Telephone & Telegraph Co.  In the picture above, this may be the original building, or perhaps one re-built by Southern Railroad Co. after the railroad company changed hands.  The station also housed the Etowah Post office from 1924 to 1962.

Approximate size:  33' wide x 46' long
An estimate of the building footprint was calculated by Ben Bartlett, member of Apple Valley Model Railroad Club.  Generally, Southern Railway Co. built their Stations in the same manner.  Bartlett based his calculations on measurements of the window, door and freight door at the restored Hendersonville Station, home of the Apple Valley Model Railroad Club.

Paint colors:  In the picture above, the Station walls are painted in two colors.  The colors are most likely the same as what we see today on the Hendersonville Station, also built by Southern Railway Co. Dark green on the bottom; mustard yellow on top.



Picture
Southern Railway Timetable - September 29, 1912. Etowah is one of several stations between Hendersonville, Brevard and the resort at Lake Toxaway. Four passenger trains a day at this time. That changed after the Great Flood of 1916.

Picture
Map from, "A History of Railroading in Western North Carolina" by Cary Franklin Poole, 1995, p.69

Picture
This photo appears in the 1997 "A History of the United Methodist Church" by Bernice Robertson Thomas. Pictured (?): Joseph Leander Gash (1833-1916), on left. Daughters Mamie, Pearl, Pink, L to R. Photo date unknown.

Picture
Picture

Picture
Look at the building behind the rail car, on the right side of the picture. This appears to be the station with ( ... name ... ) mountain in the background.

Picture
1931 - Pearl Gash at Train Station
Picture
Pearl Gash, Station Agent and Postmaster, circa 1916 ? The sign above the door "TR 10-1" means: Transylvania Railroad, 10 miles from Hendersonville
Picture
1944 - Pearl Gash at Train Station
Picture
1948 - Pearl at the Station, the year she retired
Picture
1948 - Pink (left) and Pearl (right) at Train Station. Pearl retired as station agent on December 31, 1948. The depot then became a "non-agency station," no agent on duty.
  • Home
  • SPECIAL
    • Virtual Tour of Selected Historic Places
    • History Displays in Etowah & Library Notebooks
    • Etowah Heritage Day 2019 - 130 Years
    • Etowah Treasures Exhibit, Sept/Oct 2019
  • PEOPLE & PLACES
    • Maps
    • Memorabilia
    • Places, Early Homes, Other
    • French Broad River & Valley Views
    • People - early times
    • People - later times
    • People - Gash Family descendants
    • Veterans
  • HIST. I
    • Timeline
    • Formation of Henderson County, est 1838
    • Etowah History Notes - Research To Date
    • 1889 Money, then Etowah
    • Etowah - Creek/Muskogee Translation
    • How Etowah Got Its Name
    • Postmasters 1889 - 1968
    • Etowah Train Depot - 1895 >
      • Trains of Etowah
    • The Railroad - Hendersonville to Toxaway
  • HIST. II
    • 1900 U.S. Census
    • Farms of Early Etowah
    • Historic Etowah High School 1928 - 1960 >
      • 1st Annual 1938 -The Chief
      • Little Chief - Gleanings from
      • Students & Faculty EHS
      • EHS Memorabilia
      • Etowah High School - Memorial Plaque 2014 - HCEHI
    • Historic Schools 1800s - 1928 >
      • Etowah Institute 1911
    • Schools of Nearby Communities
    • Historic Churches
    • Historic Cemeteries >
      • Thomas-Fletcher Cemetery
      • Adopt-A-Cemetery: Thomas-Fletcher
  • HIST. III
    • Sheriff Robert Thomas
    • Civil War Union Monument
    • Orr Cabin Homeplace - early 1800s
    • Mountain Lily - 1881
    • Welsh Colony 1880s
    • Grist Mills
    • Shape Note Traditions
  • HIST. IV
    • Community Fairs 1938-1941, 1950s
    • Stores of Early Etowah
    • McKinna General Store
    • More Business Ads 1938 - 1960+
    • "Etowah Brick" Moland-Drysdale Corp. - 1923
    • Calx Mfg. Company - 1919
    • Camp Peep-Out - 1935
    • Etowah Grange #984 - 1937 >
      • Grange - 25th Anniversary 1937-1962
      • Grange Quilt - 1953
  • HIST. V
    • 1952 - Hatheway Floral Company
    • 1954 - Etowah Lions Club, Park & More
    • 1960s - Growing & Changing
    • 1964 - Etowah / Horse Shoe Volunteer Fire
    • 1966 - Water & Sewer System, Tower
    • 1966 - Etowah Riding Club
    • 1982 - A Library Comes to Etowah
  • Stories
    • Eade Anderson, Reverend
    • Lois Adcock Bayne
    • Emma Louise Curtis Bradley
    • Richard Brown
    • Patricia Bell Cantrell
    • Jerri Whiteside Lambeth
    • Wanda Sumner Love
    • David S. Mallett
    • Opal Dalton Parkinson
    • Jeannie Huggins Revis
    • Glenda Maxwell Simpson
    • Marylin Annette Jones Thomas
    • "The Follies" & "Matilda's Folly"
  • About