N&W in 1908 -- Bluefield station

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
February 15, 1908

WORK NEARLY FINISHED
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Bluefield's Passenger Depot Now Presents Greatly Improved Appearance
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    The work which began on the passenger depot last October is now nearing completion, after an expenditure of between $10,000 and $12,000, and the structure now presents an appearance much more in harmony with the progressiveness of Bluefield than did the little, crowded station with which we had to be contented for so long a time.
    The baggage room has been extended twenty feet westward; an eight-foot passageway has been made through the body of the building; the ladies' waiting room now measures 25x50 feet instead of 25x25 feet as of old; a smoking room 16x25 feet has been built on the east end; all the old hardware has been removed from the windows and doors and handsome bronze trimmings are now seen instead; and lastly, the entire building has been repainted.
    Outside the main steps leading from the depot to the train platform have been widened from eight to thirty feet.  The sidewalk will be extended around the entire building, and it is the intention of the railway company to build steps leading from the new smoking room to the train platform.  Several other changes have also been made. What was formerly the men's waiting room will in the future be set apart from the ladies, and a new ticket window has been cut where they may purchase tickets without being jostled by the crowd of foreigners and others always present in the depot.  The old ladies' waiting room  is now to serve as the general public's place of waiting, and the gentlemen have a smoking room set apart especially for that purpose.  The old double lavatory has been remodeled and newly furnished and is now for the use of the ladies.  The gentlemen's lavatory is now in the extension, adjoining the smoking room.
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[The newspaper changed its tune a bit after seeing that the N&W plans, which the newspaper had criticized in earlier articles as being inadequate, were not so bad after all.  Does anyone know the history of this station?  Was the 1908 station the same stone station that survived the end of passenger service?]

Gordon Hamilton
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