Montpelier Station is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Orange County, Virginia, United States. Montpelier Station is located along Virginia State Route 20 west-southwest of Orange. Montpelier Station has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional se ...

with ZIP code 22957. The community is home to a historic

railroad depot A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing such ...

, which opened in 1910 and became an exhibit at

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

's Montpelier estate in 2010. Rockwood, a house listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

, is also located in Montpelier Station.

Montpelier Station railroad depot

William du Pont purchased the Montpelier Estate in 1901 and paid to have a train depot built there to bring in supplies and for his weekly travel to Wilmington, Delaware for business. The station was designed by the Southern Railway Company using one of its standard floor plans, which called for segregated waiting rooms. The "White" waiting room measured 14 feet wide by 15.6 feet long. The "Colored" waiting room measured 9 feet long by 15.6 feet wide. Signs for "Colored" and "White" were installed over each door. Both waiting rooms were served by a single ticket office, which had two windows that intersected both rooms at an angle. Freight service began in 1911 and ceased in 1962. Passenger service began in 1912 and cased in 1929, after which time the time postal area on the first floor was enlarged. Following the death of Marion du Pont Scott in 1983, the Montpelier Estate was passed to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2008, the Montpelier Foundation undertook a renovation of the Depot, restoring it to its original 1910s appearance in order to document this period of legalized segregation in Virginia and educate the public about the

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sou ...

era. On February 21, 2010, the restored Depot reopened with a new exhibition inside, "The Montpelier Train Depot: In the Time of Segregation." The building housed the Montpelier Station post office prior to October 2008 and from August 2009 to June 2022.

References

External links

Montpelier Depot, State Route 20 at Orange County Road 639, Montpelier Station, Orange County, VA
at the

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

(HABS) Unincorporated communities in Orange County, Virginia Unincorporated communities in Virginia Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia {{OrangeCountyVA-geo-stub