Beginning on January 1, 1840, the arrival of the Louisa Railroad helped make Gordonsville a thriving rail junction, formed by the Virginia Central, formerly the Louisa Railroad and later renamed the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and the Orange and Alexandria, later known as the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas. With rail service came a tradition begun by enterprising African-American women, who became famous as "Chicken Vendors" after first being known as "Waiter Carriers." Because early passenger trains had no dining cars, these women balanced platters of fried chicken on their heads and served passengers through open windows, helping make Gordonsville known as the "Fried Chicken Capital of the World." The Gordonsville Exchange Hotel, opened in 1860 as an elegant stop for Virginia Central Railway passengers, was turned in March 1862 into Gordonsville Receiving Hospital by the Army of Northern Virginia, and during the Civil War the Chicken Vendors fed thousands of hungry soldiers on passing trains. After the war, they continued selling fried chicken and fried pies made with Early Harvest, Yellow, and other "acid" apples, with chicken legs and breast sold for fifteen cents and backs and wings for five and ten cents. By 1879 the Gordonsville Town Council required a snack vendor's license and a license tax. A century of tradition ended as rail service modernized with dining cars, steel coaches with closed vestibules, and air-conditioned cars with sealed windows. Among the women associated with this tradition were Maria Wallace, Laura Swift, Lucy Washington, Francis Taylor, Adeline Daniel, Mary Vest, Isabella "Bella" Winston, who learned the work from her mother Maria Wallace, and Hattie Edwards, who later operated Hattie's Inn.