The Montpelier Train Depot
The 1910 Montpelier Train Depot: In the Time of Segregation
Adjacent to Montpelier's main entrance, you will see a small yellow building constructed in 1910 to serve as a train depot and post office for the duPont family. Pursuant to existing laws in Virginia and across the South, this building was designed and initially constructed as a segregated public space. White and black passengers were physically separated into two waiting rooms, one marked "white" and the other marked "colored." James Madison's Montpelier recently restored this segregated building to its original 1910 layout in order to document this unjust period of legalized segregation in American history.
Open from 10:30-4:30 daily, the exhibit In the Time of Segregation is self-guided. Interpretive panels found in and outside the depot address the local African-American community who lived in this area throughout the period of segregation, the codification of laws which dictated that blacks and whites be given "separate but equal" accommodation, a look at those who worked in the depot as agents and postmasters, and the operation of passenger, freight and mail service by rail.
Today, the Montpelier Station Train Depot is home to the exhibit described above, while it continues to house an active U.S. Post Office, located in the restored freight room.
Montpelier Train Depot
Built in 1910 by William duPont from plans provided by the railway, the Train Depot allowed duPont to travel to his work in Delaware and receive goods shipped to Montpelier.