Uptown Lexington

[Noneck_08]

This is a tour of uptown Lexington. I live about three blocks from downtown so I took these picks walking the dog. The picks are a kinda bad as I used an cheap camara but you can see overall.

The first pick is looking at the YMCA, from the intersection of State St. and 3rd Ave. To give you a little hint on the street grid. Main and State parallel each other with Center St. cutting threw. The NCRR borders downtown about 2 blocks south of main. Main is were most of the historic buildings are as State is were most of the banks and such are.

Here's a pick looking down State St. at our little "skyline"

A close up of the LSB building. Lexington State Bank is a local bank around the triad. This is there main HQ.

A pick looking up 2nd Avenue. There are a few resterants and a coffee shop on this street. The Pet Pavillion closed earlier this year due to lack of business. Manly because they just sold fish and birds. Duncans Pet shop which is on the other side of town has a nice selection at cheap prices.

A pick looking at the new court house on Center St. It looks small but there's an whole new section behind it. It's famous for our ex sheriff Gerald Hege. (can't spell his name right)

A look at the Post office and a close up of the Lexcom Building. Lexcom is a local telephone and cable company.

The new BB&T building. Just completed early this year on N. Main St.

Our little old Police Station

A look at Shoto's Japanese Resterant on Main St.

Looking south down Main St.

Part of the Square and the old Davidson County Courthouse.

Looking down Center Street toward's the LSB building. I took this pick from the edge of the town square.

Pig's in the city!

The renovated Belk's building. It now is an outlet of Lexington Home Brands.

This is the old Carolina Theater. It's now our Civic Center.(sorry..bad lighting in the pic)

Looking down S. Main. St. near the intersection of Main St. and 5th Ave.

Thats the end of the downtown tour but i'll put some other picks of town on here later.

[DigitalSky]

Yay! Nice to see Lexington for a change...

[monsoon]

Nice Tour. I would have never guessed there would be a Japanese restaurant in the capital of western style BBQ. (but I guess everyone wants variety )

[Beany]

Great tour of Lexington. I have always liked it's downtown. IMO it has a better downtown than many other towns of similar size and larger.

[Noneck_08]

Thanks for the nice replies guys. Anywaz here are a few extra picks I have taken. In case you don't know, I'am a railfan so alot of these are of trains.

Here is a pick looking towards the railroad tracks from Main. St. There's a bunch of old warehouse's between here and the tracks, most of them belonging to Lexington Funiture Plants. Like most of the triad, we have had major job loses and now we only have 2 or 3 funiture plants still in business.

I took these picks last summer. The first one is the southbound Carolinian thundering under the Center St. Bridge on it's way to Charlotte. The second is a pick of the old Southern Freight Station. Were about 2 blocks from Downtown.

Here are some more train pics(sorry im obsessed). The first 2 are of the Northbound Piedmont. I took these photos yesterday. The train was only moving around 20 or 30mph as it was stoppe by a few frieghts.

Heres my last pick. I took it today, it's of the southbound Carolinian running about an hour late as usually.

By the way this pick and the two of the Piedmont were taken from the 7th Ave. railroad crossing.

O and this weekend ill try to get some picks of the new wal-mart which is under construction. And some of bi-lo etc.

[Spartan]

Great pics. I may have to take a side trip off of the interstate next time I am up that direction

[krazeeboi]

So is Lexington trying to be "hip and cool" too by having an "uptown"?

[Noneck_08]

I wouldn't say the city is trying to be "hip or cool" we're just trying to go with the flow. It seems that improving your downtown is just the new thing to do in towns.

[krazeeboi]

So is the trend now to rename the downtown area "uptown" when revitilization/beautification is under way?

[JaxInvestor]

Yes, that is the trend. I'm from Lexington originally...born and raised for 18 years. now in Jacksonville, FL.

[orulz]

I notice you have a number of pictures of the Amtrak Carolinian and Piedmont there. Did you know that NCDOT plans to eventually stop those trains in Lexington? Check out this article from the March 9, 2005 edition of The Dispatch (Lexington's local newspaper).

Registration is required to read the article so I will summarize (rather than plagarize) here for your convenience:

A group of people called the Lexington Passenger Rail Advisory Committee got together one day and decided to find out what it would take to get passenger trains stopping in Lexington. They met with Alan Paul, director of the Rail Services Division at NCDOT, and to their surprise learned that a stop for Lexington was already in NCDOT's long-term plans. According to Paul, Lexington is the "missing link" on the route between Rocky Mount and Charlotte, and the only additional stop that they plan on adding on the route.

First, however, they'd need a station. A temporary station (better known as an Amshack) could get things off the ground within two years, but the permanent solution would be to renovate the old freight depot and put a covered platform out trackside. NCDOT had already completed a study to that effect in 1992, determining that it would cost $1.2 million (perhaps $2 million today.) While a project of that scale could be funded mostly by NCDOT and various grants, it appears that the city has to take the lead role on the project.

[Noneck_08]

I didn't know that the city and state had plans for this. I emailed city hall about it a couple of months ago and all they said that they are no new plans and that the stop during the BBQ festival was it. I railfan near the old depot alot and theres plenty of room for a amshack like the one durham has. They have an old trailer there in which NS keeps some equitment and if it was to be moved there would be plenty of room. Looking at the freight station, I got to peer into it the other day cuz the door had been broke opean and overall the inside dosen't look that bad and is cleaned out. But it's good to here news like that about Lexington. Our town's really stepping up to make something of itself.

[orulz]

If you want to get a better answer from City Hall, try e-mailing them again, point out the article, and then point out the station restorations in Marion, Old Fort, and Morganton, in which the federal government covered 80% of the costs, the state covers 10%, and the local government is responsible for 10%. In many cases, the local governments were able to secure grants and donations to cut the local share down to less than 5% of the total cost of restoring the depot. The Southern Pines station was already in service, but it was improved with 100% state funds. In Kannapolis's case, the new station was built with 90% state funds and 10% local match. More than half of that 10% match was covered with donations and grants, leaving Kannapolis with $105,000 to pay on a $2.4 million project.

In other words, if the town gets serious about having a train station, they can get it done without spending much local money at all. All it takes is a few phone calls to these other towns to find out how they did it, and a bit of hard work scrounging for grants and donations, and that's it. Let them know that you think a train station - an asset which will last for a very long time - is well worth $100,000 of the taxpayers' money. I'm sure they'll see where you're coming from.

[TLT]

Really good pics of the town. I have not been there in years.

Trains are a favorite of mine too, I try to work a train ride into my vacation every year, usually on Amtrak. The post and pictures were taken back in 2005, any updates on Amtrak Station in Lexington?

There have plans to bring Amtrak to Wilmington for years now, The DOT has given everything the green light, but the studies and the building of a multi transportation hub downtown that will house Amtrak, bus stops, city and greyhound, plus choosing the most feasible-profitable way to bring Amtrak into the city, Fayetteville or straight from Raleigh, is taking forever.

[sean]

Cool photos of the train. I could make out Lanier's Hardware in the second photo... that place is a classic! They seem to have at least one of everything.