West Jefferson

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Paul   I will give your questions a shot.            1-4th Avenue is still not much of a street. Most or all is gravel parking area for Ashe County Cheese and Dr Pepper Bottling. The other side of Main St is mostly access to the lumber and other products at the hardware store. Probably was not any room for traffic before tracks were taken out.       2-  Not sure when the crosstie business closed. I don’t remember anything but the hardware store in the early 70s. I will try to find out more.                3-  I can remember the coal yard. Believe it was in the area between the water tank and Main Street. Was between the track and Back Street.   4-  The depot would have been on west side of track        5-   The train originally went beyond WJ to Todd until the early 30s. There was a stockyard and tobacco warehouse there in the early 70s. The warehouse building is still standing along Long St. One side is built on an odd angle. Looks like it may have been built along a track for loading cars? Part of this building can be seen in my drawing beyond the depot. The stockyards were just north of the warehouse building. There is still a very small block building in the southwest corner of Ashe St and Back St that was the “Stockyard Grill “. I would think N&W served both of these places but I will ask some local historians about it. Hope all this helps a little. John Baldwin