J. Douglas Galyon Depot(The Greensboro Project)

*How it Got Started*


The Greensboro Southern Railway Depot was built in 1927 and was one of the most remarkable passenger stations. It was coordinated by the New York architectural firm of Alfred Fellheimer and Steward Wagner. The original station contained a main waiting room with an amazing painting of the Southern Railway network during the 1920's. Currently, the station has a pedestrian tunnel, protruding from the waiting room, under the tracks, and up to the train platforms. The second floor houses local, regional, and interstate bus services.




From May 1979 to October 2005, rail passengers had to wait for the train in a small freight railroad office several miles west of downtown. Authorities from the NC Department of Transportation and the city of Greensboro started working together in 1993 on plans to return passenger rail service to the old station and enhance connections with other modes of transportation.


*The Advantages of Riding a Bus*

• Easy access for everyone(handicapped, children,etc.)



• Good schedule to meet your needs(Mon-Fri: 5:15am-11:30pm~Sat: 6am-10pm~Sun: 6am-6pm)



• Low costs($1.30)



• Takes you to your destination



• Several bus shelters in various locations(UNCG, A&T, Four Seasons, Downtown Greensboro,etc.)
• You feel some what safe with the rules and regulations that the buses have

*Where these Buses take you*

-Monday-Saturday Route(GTA Routes)

• Route 1: West Wendover Avenue


• Route 2: Four Seasons
  
• Route 3: North Elm Street


• Route 4: Benbow/Willow Rd

• Route 5: Gorrell St.

• Route 6: Summit Avenue


• Route 7: Friendly Avenue

• Route 8: Battleground Avenue

• Route 9: West Market St


• Route 10: East Market St

• Route 11: High Point Rd

• Route 12: Randleman Rd/South Elm-Eugene St

• Route 13: Martin Luther King Jr. Drive

• Route 14: Bessemer Avenue/Phillips Avenue
  
• Route 15: Yanceyville St/Brightwood School Rd

-They also have connector routes such as Lawndale, Irving Park/Starmount shuttle, High Point Rd, West Wendover, and South Town.

*What About the Community?*

-The train/bus station tells us that the community definitely needs a way of transportation. It shows us that the owners/operators of the Depot wanted to make sure that individuals who cannot afford a vehicle, have some sort of transportation to get to their destination. This also means that the community is well-built and brought up, which is probably why the Depot decided to connect the train and bus station together. A city is not going to spend money on something that is in a poor environment. The Federal Transit Administration, Federal Highway Administration, and state and city funds paid $32 million to have this building improved.

Overall Reflection(Blog #5)

After visiting several specific sites and places, I view the world in a whole new perspective. When I go to places that I never been before, I tend to pay closer attention to the details and quality of the building. Now I actually value the building of its design and material believe it or not. We visited places such as College Hill, College Park, downtown Greensboro, the J. Douglas Galyon Depot, and Battleground Park. These sites all have different, yet similar qualities. All of them have an important history and they have a special quality about them. Such as the J. Douglas Galyon Depot, who has an important history of transportation by bus and train. College Hill has a history of college students attending UNCG. Downtown Greensboro has several special stores that come and go. As far as my final project, I'm thinking about concentrating on the J. Douglas Galyon Depot because I have actually had some experience with it.

Roadway(Blog #4)

As we were riding on Wendover Avenue from I-40, I noticed that there are typically more building types than on, lets say Elm Street. Elm Street had more small restauants, coffee shops, shopping stores, and hair salons. Whereas on Wendover, there are more bigger shopping centers, drug stores, grocery stores, car dealerships, restaurants, and hotels. Some examples are CVS, Target, Walmart, IHOP, Bojangles, Subway, Honda Dealership, Infiniti Dealership, and the Hyatt. I noticed that there are car dealerships on one end of Wendover and restaurants and shopping centers on the other. This signifies the importance transportation is in this area of Greensboro. Elm Street is more of a small downtown area, whereas Wendover Ave. is more of a big shopping strip. I also noticed how Wendover has more business/job related buildings than Elm Street does.

Open Spaces(Blog #3)

The place that represented open space was Battleground Park. The openness of the park kind of gives the people of the community a sense of relief and comfort. Even though there was a battle that occurred there, it symbolizes peace. I noticed that it was not trashy and everyone was at ease. Parks that are trashy and noisy tend to be the ones that symbolize war instead of peace. The statues, for some odd reason, give you the sense that they are actually there. The excessive wind made me think of spirits flying around while looking at several statues. Not only do they signify spirit existence, but also honor. When one looks at the Vietnam Wall in Washington D.C., they automatically respect it. It's the same with statues; when you look at them, you honor or favor that person for their honorary work. The Greensboro organizers probably decided not to make a town around the park because it should be a place where one can come and relax and comfort themselves. Normally it's very busy and noisy in a town, so it wouldn't suit it.

Residential(Blog #2)

The Loewenstein's house was very different from the rest in the neighborhood. The structure of their home symbolizes their creativity and how much they value their home. They created their home this way so that others in the community will feel welcomed to come visit their home/site. Not only did they do this for their own creativity, but also to let the community know that anything is possible in this world. I mean I have never seen a house like this one and it will probably be the first and the last. Before we ate lunch, we observed how the black iron bars ran into the ground to hold the house up. These grayish, black bars symbolize the quality and the history of the household. These bars tell us that as people may come and go in that house, but it will always continue to stand.

Retail(Blog #1)

*The Friendly Center*
A few original, or should I say old, buildings that I observed at the Friendly Center were Animal Clinic, Radio Shack, Ritz Camera, Catherine's Plus Sizes, and Chuck E Cheese. These stores particularly serve to plus size women, children between 5 and 13, pet owners, and people who favor electronics. The original buildings seem to have gray and dull brick material. It looks dirty as if it hasn't been washed in years which signifies how often people visit or shop on that side of the Friendly Center. On the new side of the Friendly Center we have a few stores such as AT&T, Hallmark, The Apple, Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, Pablano, and New York Company. I noticed that there are more clothing, hygienic, and electronic stores than the original side. This signifies how the generations have upgraded tremendously. Back then, they didn't have as much technology and variety of clothing as we do today.

*Four Seasons*
Other than the Friendly Center, we have Four Seasons. Four Seasons has a great variety of shopping stores. They have shoe stores, clothing stores, restaurants, cellular phone stores, toy stores, etc. Several people come from different cities to visit the Four Seasons mall which signifies its popularity and quality of the mall.

*Battleground Park*

Battleground Park is a very historical site for the community to visit. We observed a lot of information about Battleground Park and some of the famous people that were involved in it.

On the Other Side of the Tracks

Overall the observations that we observed on South Elm Street, I noticed that there were more stores(on both sides of the street) back in 1925 than now. I noticed that there are currently a lot of vacant and non existing places. I am not surprised that there were more stores back then because currently, several of those old, or so called traditional stores, are either too old-fashioned or running out of business, due to the fact that this generation does not visit these type of stores very often. For example, The Princess Mary Shop(536 South Elm Street) probably didn't last very long because as the years went on, people were probably becoming less fund of the merchandise or the store itself.

After looking at the grid, I noticed a few stores that lasted for a long period of time. These stores probably didn't run out of business possibly because of the importance or the quality of the merchandise. These stores/places included the Southern Railroad, The Salvation Army, Southside Hardware Company, Coe Grocery, Kindley's Used Office Furniture, and Rhyne's Corner Cupboard Antiques. These stores are very important to several people such as The Salvation Army for the poor, Southside Hardware Company for car related places, and Coe Grocery for food supplies. The Southern Railway, of course, still exists today because Greensboro is known for traveling, especially on the train. This is something that was established a while back and will continue to progress because it has and always will help people to get to their destinations.