The architecturally delightful Cambria Freight Station is a small-town celebration of early rail travel. The Virginia and Tennessee Railroad reached the Montgomery County town of Christiansburg in 1854 and a depot, built in the present-day suburb of Cambria, was opened in 1857. Union troops burned the depot in 1864; its replacement, the present depot, was part of the railroad restoration program instigated by the rail company’s new president, William Mahone. The Italianate style chosen for the depot was popular for railroad structures of the time. In Country Seats (1865), author Henry Holley states that the easily constructed Italian style was “appropriate for stations in rural settings.” The depot was converted to a freight station in 1906 when a new station was built nearby. The depot was sold into private ownership and restored for adaptive reuse in the 1980s. The former Cambria Freight Station remains one of the oldest depots in the state.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia