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Depot Day: A Cambria Celebration
14 July 2012, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
We are gearing up, once again, for the annual Depot Day Celebration. The festival is just in the planning stage, so there is a lot to do in the next couple of months. In the tradition of Andy Hardy and the 4th of July celebrations (sans fireworks) in every small town, this is a community festival.
History of Depot Day.
Depot Day started in the 1980s by Jim and Helen Dorsett, with help from friends and neighbors, as a way to draw attention to the revitalization efforts in Cambria and to celebrate the community and its railroad history. Because the initial revitalization centered on the Cambria Depot, the festival was called Depot Day. While the purpose and the breadth of the festival expanded, the name stuck. Depot Day was held, annually, between 1985 and 1988. In 2011, the Christiansburg Civic League resurrected the community celebration and coupled it with Nation Train Day. This year, the celebration of Cambria is being sponsored by the "Saturday" merchants in Cambria and has moved to July so that it doesn't coincide with graduation exercises.
The Depot Day Celebration
As with the original festival, the focus is on community. There is no entrance fee or gate fee. The festival is free to the public. The emphasis is on having fun and enjoying an afternoon.
The local shops will be open for business. If past experience is any indication, there will be plenty of opportunities to pick up baked goods from one of the local churches, enjoy lunch from one of the local restaurants (either up the street or from their catering carts), check out works from local artist, learn something about local history and the Cambria community, visit with old friends and meet new friends, and enjoy entertaining exhibits and performers.
Special Events and Contests.
Note: this is not a complete list (we just started orphaning the event and will add more to the list as we go along).
The "Construction" Challenge. All kids, ages 4 to 12, are invited to participate in the first annual "construction" challenge. The object of the challenge is to build a sculpture using a pack of 11 x 17 construction paper (available from the Cambria Toy Station), paints, colors, or other art materials (also available at the toy store, and "found" objects or other materials (wrapping paper, ribbons, beads, etc.) from around the house. Each sculpture must be three dimensional and at least 1' in height.
The sculptures need to be dropped off at the Cambria Toy Station by 5 p.m. on July 10th to give us time to set up the displays. The sculptures will be on display during the Depot Day celebration, and awards and prized will be given out at 3:00 p.m. the day of the celebration.
There are three age categories (4 to 6, 7 to 9, and 10 to 12). Ribbons are given for everything from the use of color to humor to creativity. There will be a "grand prize" winner in each of the age categories. This year, the "grand prize" is a $25.00 gift certificate from the Cambria Toy Station.
Entry forms will be available at the Cambria Toy Station starting May 1st.
Cambria/When I Was a Kid..Story Tellers. The story tellers stage will be located inside the freight house at the Cambria Depot. Everyone is invited to stop by and either spin a yarn or listen to a yarn (or both).
Music and Entertainment. We are looking for a few good "buskers."...musicians, jugglers, magicians, clowns...you name it. Come help us make this a joyful and fun event.
Vendors
While vendors are not charged a fee for participating (although we certainly won't turn down a contribution to the cause), they are required to have a minimum of one activity and/or give away for kids. In addition, vendors must be from Christiansburg or the New River Valley. Vendors are more than welcome to contact the organizers for information: Meghan Dorsett, by phone (540.382.6431) or by email (mhdorsett@verizon.net). Commercial vendors do need to check with the Town of Christiansburg for all applicable licenses and fees.
Non-Profit and For Profit Vendors. The majority of vendors are either from local community organizations (churches, civic groups, etc.), cultural groups (Montgomery Museum, Christiansburg Library, and so), government agencies/departments (Christiansburg Aquatic Center, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Christiansburg Fire Department, Christiansburg Rescue Squad, Christiansburg Police Department), and non-profit organizations. Non-profit vendors/exhibitors are exempt from business license requirements. For profit exhititors/vendors/food vendors are required to meet all applicable licensing rules.
Food vendors. Food vendors are responsible for meeting all applicable health department and town requirements, including health department license and meals tax requirements.
Artists and Photographers. Because space is fairly limited, we are providing gallery space on a first come basis. The majority of work will be hung in the Cambria Emporium. (Artists and photographers are exempt from the kids activity requirement, although we encourage you to spend time talking to aspiring artists). Artists are willing to sell their artwork during the festival, but we are still checking on sales tax requirements. If the sales are handled by the Cambria Dealers Association, there will be a 10% commission to cover tax, license, and labor costs. Set up for the show is on Friday, July 13th and take down is immediately following the fesival and on Sunday, July 15th. Exhibitors may decide they want to extend their exhibition period and should talk to Billy Simpkins at the Emporium about space and wall rentals (381.0949 on Mondays an Fridays).
For more information on the Cambria Depot Day Festival, call Meghan at 540.382.6431.
Welcome to Historic Cambria:
Cambria is the history of quiet lives in a quintessential railroad town. The mayor better known for his photographs than his governance. The minister better known for his models than his sermons.
It is the history of the rest of us.
- No “great” events happened here. No wars were started here; no treaties were signed here. The original depot was burned by Averill's troops in 1864, and there was a dual fought here in 1882, but that was about it.
- No “great” people were born here. Thomas Jefferson never visited. Captain Charles Schaeffer built a church and a school for the African American community at the top of the hill; Washington Carver taught at the Christiansburg Institute just down the tracks; and there is a rumor that Elvis used the facilities at the depot a couple of times, (he hasn't been sighted since), but that was about it.
- No “great” inventions were created here. No printing presses or flying machines or radios. That's not to say that nothing was made here. The Phoenix Furniture Company churned out side chairs; the land ownership rolls listed blacksmiths and wheelwrights, cobblers and jewelers, and a host of other craftsmen and tradesmen.
If Jeremiah Kyle hadn't insisted that the railroad come through Montgomery County to provide a way to ship coal from his mine at Merrimac, Blacksburg wouldn't exist in its current permutation and Virginia Tech might have been located elsewhere.
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While Cambria is a bit off the beaten track these days, in its heyday, it really was the center of Montgomery County. From 1868 to 1960, the Cambria Depot was the shipping point for all the goods coming into and leaving Montgomery and Floyd Counties, including the Towns of Christiansburg and Blacksburg. Every Sears mail-order house and Wishbook gift; every letter and package; every rug and factory chair and wedding dress sold by the mail order firms from New England to the West Coast; every Model T and Stutz Bearcat; and every secret decoder ring came through the Cambria Depot.
From 1868 until 1908, the Cambria Depot also served as the passenger station, including during the height of immigration. The depot and Cambria welcomed the miners from Wales and Czechoslovakia, farmers from Germany and Ireland, cabinet-makers and home-builders, masons and seamstresses. The languages spoken in the freight-house were as diverse as the last names in the County. In 1908, the Norfolk and Western built a new passenger station on a site east of the old depot and on top of a small spring fed pond (and we wonder we have water problems) an the old depot was converted to a freight station and a maintenance of ways & engineering office.
In its heyday, Cambria boasted of five mercantiles and general stores, a china shop, a notions shop, the Phoenix furniture factory, a grocery store, a couple of banks, more than a couple of hardware stores, three mills of various types, a creamery, four hotels, and more than its share of bars, brothels, and pool halls. While Cambria, like most railroad towns, went through a period of decline, a renaissance over the past 30 years has make Cambria a thriving neighborhood and a great place to visit.
Come and explore the unique shops and the history, and if you listen quietly enough and let your imagination take over, you can still hear the songs of the gandy dancers, the rumble of the steam engines, and the jingle of coins.
Tamarack? Where?
Changes at the Emporium
Change is coming to the Cambria Emporium. The Emporium has long been known as an antiques and book collective. Starting earlier this year, the folks who own the Emporium decided to broaden the range of offerings by expanding the membership of the collective to include fine artists and craftsmen.They have set aside the back half of the first floor and created variable booth and wall space to accommodate both large and small craftsmen and artists spaces. Because the Emporium is a collective, new members are not required to pay a commission beyond their base rent ($1.10 per square foot), but they are required to work one day per week to help keep the overall costs down. For more information, please contact Billy Simpkins on Monday or Friday at 381-0949.
Green? Sustainable?
...Oh, Come on!
Generally, when we talk about historic preservation or antiques or anything else that is old...we are talking about preserving history. Perhaps we should be talking about preserving the environment.
Old chairs and old dressers are like old buildings. They are still around precisely because the original builders and cabinetmakers built objects that last. They aren't fragile. They have withstood years of use and abuse and are still standing. The may have 10 coats or 20 coats of paint, may be color that reminds you of your grandmother's seafoam green livingroom, but their basic structure is solid and they are inherently friendly and comforting, like an old pair of shoes.
Take the depot. At 144 years old, there isn't a level surface or a plumb wall in the entire building. The floors creak. The roof ripples when the wind blows. There are air leaks around the windows and on the occasional very cold day, the inside surface of the window panes have a thin layer of frost. Plexiglas storm windows, mounted on the inside, prevent the wind from driving the temperature indoors downward, but they do little to maintain a semi-tropical atmosphere. Well, except for the freightroom where the wind creeps through the gaps in the fright doors. Despite its flaws, it survived being hit by a train; survived years of neglect and abuse; survived because the orginal builders built something that would last.
The building is primarily american chestnut, a bit of oak, and poplar siding. Walk into the freight room and look up. 43 foot long, solid, center-cut (9" x 7") american chestnut beams span the width of the building. With the exception of a few barns and farm houses scattered around Montgomery County and environs, you won't find the basic structural materials anywhere else. After the flood three years ago, FEMA sent an adjuster to evaluate the building. In his assessment, to replace the depot, build a replica, would cost between 1.6 million and 1.8 million. Even then, it wouldn't be built as well or be as structurally sound because the materials no longer exist.
Old buildings and antique furniture do not require the use of new materials. In most cases, their environmental footprints were fairly small, often constructed from local materials-- the timbers and tresses, leg stock and drawer backs came from local mills. There are exceptions of course, Sears mail-order houses and items from the annual wishbook arrived by rail and passed through the Depot. They have already outlived their environmental impact. The same can't be said for new objects, especially those made overseas with US raw material and shipped back to the US.