141 W Bruce St

From the National Register nomination

Vacant brick building constructed in two sections: a two-story passenger and office section on the front (north) end and a one-story freight section to the rear. The front section is classical in overall character with embellishments indicative of Craftsman-style influence. It has a metal-sheathed hip roof with skylights (now covered) behind a parapet with an inscription and a slightly raised frontispiece with Indiana limestone trim and faceted bosses. The same stone forms belt courses and window sills and lintels on the façade. Most of the brickwork is stretcher bond, although on the west elevation it consists of two courses of header stack bond alternating with one course of stretchers. The corners are defined by façade piers with recessed faces and caps ornamented with vertical strips of projecting brickwork. The principal entry has an ornate surround consisting of projecting and stepped-back brick and red-tinted concrete with a crosshatched surface and stone shield ornaments. Other features of the front section include 6/8 windows, a limestone and poured concrete foundation, a boarded-up west entry with a hopper transom, and deterioration at the southwest corner. The freight wing is constructed of 1:5 American-bond brick with penciled dark mortar joints. The segmental-arch freight entries have doors with chevron beaded tongue-and-groove. The gable roof has modern corrugated metal roofing and deep eaves supported on simple struts. Other features include a double gable parapet at the south end, an 8/8 window, and concrete and wood freight platforms. The concrete foundation of a small stone and concrete car house occupies the northeast corner of the lot. The space between the station and Bruce St. was developed as a small park. The Chesapeake Western Railway was incorporated as the Chesapeake & Western Railroad Co. in 1895 and opened its first passenger and freight station near S. Main St. and Warsaw Ave. the same year. According to C&W historian Charles Price, the line was not permitted to share use of the B&O's 1911 Union Station on W. Market St. (now gone), and so it built its own station and general office building. In 1918 the station accommodated passengers on the first floor of the front section, offices on the second floor, and freight in the rear wing. The building's original use ceased in the 1940s and it was damaged by fire in 1982. In the 1990s Norfolk Southern rented the building out for use as warehouse space. The Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority explored adaptive reuse options for the building in the mid-1990s. (Deskins, "Chesapeake Western Railway Train Station;" Price, "Crooked & Weedy," 12, 45-46; Suter and Lyon, Images of America: Harrisonburg, 104)