Piedmont and Northern Railway records

Collection

Identifier: MS0016

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains various records of the Piedmont and Northern Railway Company and its predecessor lines, including the Greenville, Spartanburg & Anderson Railway (which eventually became known as the South Carolina division) and the Piedmont Traction Company (which became the North Carolina division). Also includes information on streetcar systems operated by the P&N in Anderson, S.C., and Gastonia, N.C.

Dates

1910 - 1968

Creator

Piedmont and Northern Railway Company (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections.

Biographical / Historical

William States Lee, vice president of Southern Power and Utilities Company (now Duke Power Company), proposed the creation of the Piedmont and Northern Railway Company in 1909. Southern Power's president, James B. Duke, approved of Lee's proposal and stock was first issued in 1911. Envisioned as an electric interurban line linking the major cities of the Piedmont Carolinas, construction began in Charlotte in 1911 under the direction of Lee's brother, Arthur Carl Lee. Plans called for two lines in the initial stage: a 21 mile route from Charlotte to Gastonia, N.C., and a 98 mile route linking Spartanburg, Greenville, and Greenwood, S.C. A connection of the two routes was never realized when Southern Railway Company secured an ICC ruling against an expansion of the P&N after World War I. In 1969, the railway merged with the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (now CSX Transportation). [For additional information, see LeGette Blythe and Charles Raven Brockmann, Hornets' Nest (1961); and Thomas T. Fetters and Peter W. Swanson Jr., Piedmont and Northern (1974).]

Extent

24 Linear Feet

Language

English

Additional Description

Overview

Records of the Piedmont and Northern Railway Company (incomplete), which operated in North Carolina and South Carolina, 1910-1969. Materials include operating reports and balance sheets, stockholder information, publications, legal documents, correspondence, and photographs.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into the following 12 series:

Board of Directors and Stockholders, Operating Reports and Related Material, Publications, Legislation, Extension, Switching at Charlotte, N.C.: I. & S. Docket 3617, United States Government Control Period, Georgia and Florida Railroad, Durham and Southern Railway Company, Piedmont Traction Company/Greenville, Spartanburg & Anderson Railway Company, Photographic Prints and Preliminary Study Drawings.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Seaboard System Railroad, 1984; Transfer from UNC Charlotte Library Cataloging Unit, 1988; Gift of Duke Power Company, 1989; Gift of Richard Shulby, 2012.

Related Materials

Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission Reports (MS 77): Piedmont and Northern Railway, Thrift Depot; J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections Map Collection (MS 519); Charlotte Engineering Department Maps (MS 323); Samuel Jones Nichols Papers, Duke University; William Robertson Perkins Papers, Duke University.