Welcome to the Railroad House
The Railroad House Museum is dedicated to preserving and promoting the history of Sanford and Lee County. The Museum is operated by the Railroad House Historical Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and is staffed entirely by volunteers. The organization is supported financially by membership dues, charitable contributions and grants.
The Museum’s collection is anchored by its two largest items: the 1872 Victorian home that houses the museum, and a 1911 locomotive parked beside the home.
Hours:
Saturday & Sunday: 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Monday-Friday: By Appointment Only
Location:
110 Charlotte Ave, Sanford, NC 27330
Downtown Sanford’s oldest house, built in 1872 by the Raleigh & Augusta Air Line Railroad as a home for Sanford’s first depot agent.
The Railroad House in 1962, in its original location on Hawkins Avenue.
In 1871, the Raleigh & Augusta Airline Railroad was extended from Raleigh to the area where downtown Sanford is now located. At that point, it intersected the Western Railroad, built a few years previously. Only about 200 people lived in the area at that time and housing was very scarce. Railroad officials erected a dwelling at the northwest corner of Hawkins Avenue and Carthage Street as a home for the family of its first depot agent, W. T. Tucker. Tucker’s wife, Inder, operated the Sanford Institute, the town’s first school, in the house. When the Town of Sanford was chartered in 1874, W. T. Tucker became the town’s first mayor.
In 1962, the owner of the old dwelling, which had become known as the Railroad House, leased the land for a service station and the house was slated for demolition. A group of interested citizens rallied to save the old building. They formed the Railroad House Historical Association to preserve and restore it as a historical landmark. The house was moved to the present location at 110 Charlotte Avenue, which at the time was on the depot grounds of the Seaboard Airline Railway. This was done with the approval and cooperation of the Seaboard officials. The house was renovated and restored with the help and financial assistance of dozens of local citizens.
After the move and restoration, the Railroad House hosted Sanford’s Chamber of Commerce and DMV License Tag offices. As a hub of activity in the heart of Downtown Sanford, the building soon became an unofficial museum. A few objects donated here and there added up to full rooms and, eventually, an entire floor of exhibits. About 30 years after the move, the Chamber found new quarters and the Railroad House transitioned to its current mission: a full-time museum of Sanford and Lee County.
Old steam locomotive Number 12 of the Atlantic and Western Railway company is a "Consolidation" or 2-8-0 type locomotive, so designated because it has a pony truck of two small wheels in front, eight large driving wheels, but no small-wheeled trailing truck beneath the firebox or cab.
The locomotive was built in November 1911, for the Raleigh and Southport Railway Company by the famous Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia. It weighed about 74 tons and bore Baldwin construction number 37161. The very month the locomotive was constructed, the Raleigh and Southport came under the control of the Norfolk and Southern Railway when the N.S. Railway purchased the R&S's capital stock. By 1914, the N.S. Railway had absorbed the R&S, which operated the portion of the present Norfolk & Southern Railway between Raleigh and Fayetteville, N.C.
Now known as Norfolk-Southern Number 203, the locomotive closed out its active life with the N.S. in late 1947 or early 1948, as diesels began taking its place. It came to the local office of the Atlantic and Western Railway shortly afterward.
Renumbered as Atlantic and Western No. 12, the steamer saw service on the line between Sanford and Lillington until October 7th, 1950. It was again replaced by a diesel newcomer, A & W's number 100. The No. 12 never saw service again and was officially retired by the Atlantic and Western Railway at the end of 1955.
On November 26th, 1966, old No. 12 took a "piggyback" ride on a flatbed truck to its present location. It was donated to the Railroad House Historical Association by Mr. E.T. Ussery, President of A & W Railway Co. The train was sandblasted, repainted and restored for public inspection by the Sanford Jaycees. It is regularly visited by railroad buffs and by countless numbers of children who pretend to be back in the early days of railroading.
Locomotive No. 12 taking a “piggy back” ride on a truck to its new home.
The tender being unloaded at the Railroad House.
Locomotive No. 12 and tender in place at the Railroad House.
Locomotive No. 12, freshly painted.