Montpelier Train Station

William duPont built the Depot to upgrade passenger and freight service for Montpelier, which he purchased in 1901. Constructed in 1910 from Southern Railway plans, it had two waiting rooms, one for "colored" passengers and one for "white" passengers, as required by racial segregation laws in force in Virginia and across the South from the 1890s until the 1960s. When the post office opened there in 1912, "Montpelier Station" became the official name for the neighborhood. A vibrant black community called Montpelier Station home and, with endurance and fortitude, worked to build a better world for themselves and their children despite a landscape marked by "white only" and "colored" signs and the discrimination those imposed. The Depot bore witness to the racism that led to segregation and disenfranchisement laws, and today it serves to foster discussion of citizenship and equal justice in American society.

Virginia · United States