04/29/2026
For many years Edward Norvell has had a critical role leading HSF board members, staff and stakeholders through our organization's most crucial moments and tremendous successes. He exemplifies grace, wisdom, respect, a giving and kind nature, and passion for preserving a community he deeply loves. We've all benefitted from his knowledge and service and are beyond grateful to have had such fortune as Edward in our corner leading the way to good things that have helped create and maintain a strong and healthy institution.
We hold him in such high regard and appreciate all he's done in the spirit of preservation. Please join us in honoring Edward and congratulating him for his many contributions.
For those who were unable to attend our recent annual meeting where he presided as president for the final time, we're including his speech where he shared an interesting glimpse into his time with HSF.
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The Sale of the Salisbury Station – My Story
This is the last annual meeting I will address you as president. I have served three years as president and according to the by-laws my term is up. The board will elect a new slate of officers at our next board meeting April 23 and we have a great new line up of officers!
In the fall of 1986, forty years ago, I was asked to become president of the Historic Salisbury Foundation, where I had been on the board since 1977. I was just out of law school, in my early thirties, and Susan and I were raising a young growing family. That same year we hired Mark McDonald as executive director; he was full of energy and passion. He would go on to have a stellar career with Historic Savannah Foundation and the Georgia Trust.
In 1985, HSF purchased the Salisbury Station from two railroads, Norfolk Southern and the NC Railroad after years of hard negotiation by Edward Clement and Margaret Kluttz, president of HSF at that time. We paid a combined $220,000.00 for the property.
The Station, once described as the finest station between Atlanta and Washington, was in terrible shape. It was designed by the noted Washington architect Frank Milburn who designed five railroad stations, and the Salisbury Station is the only one left standing. It was no longer operated as a station in 1985. Amtrak used a metal building thrown up on the property known locally as the “Amshack,” and the historic station was abandoned, with people living under the leaking shed area and the floor of the majestic waiting room subsided dangerously. The city was not in the position to buy it and no one else stepped up but the Historic Salisbury Foundation, with the leadership of Edward Clement and many others.
Realizing that it would take millions to restore, we at first worked with private developers who wanted to turn the station into an “active people place” with shops and restaurants. We spent a lot of time with this effort, but one after another of the developers fell through due to the high cost of restoration. It was then that we decided to “do it ourselves.” There was a parallel development in Salisbury in the 1980s that influenced our decision, the incredible growth and success of Food Lion which created enormous wealth in our community, so we thought we could raise the money to restore the station and develop it ourselves.
On behalf of the board, I asked Margaret Kluttz and Chris Whitton to lead the capital campaign, and Freida Nicolai was hired as campaign staff. Plans were developed by preservation architect Charles Phillips, and we put together a capitol campaign cabinet and case statement to raise money from the community and develop it ourselves.
We received generous donations from Tom Smith, CEO of Food Lion, who also helped us with several corporate gifts, and we received support from the entire community, included many who had never supported us before. We raised over $2 million for the restoration of the Station, which was completed in the early 1990s. When bids came in over budget Susan’s father, retired contractor DC Linn, oversaw the construction of the job at no cost to HSF.
Later the city obtained two more grants, one from NCDOT using federal ISTEA money for about $1 million for improvements to the parking lots around the Station and other site improvements to the area. Another grant for $125,000 paid for the glass canopy over the south end of the Station. In 2009 NCDOT paid 90% of $1.1 million to install a new passenger platform and canopy at the Station for passenger convenience and the city paid the rest. The city currently owns and maintains that platform. The city has also helped underwrite the cost of renting space at the Depot to Amtrak.
Through our “Revolving fund” we have bought and sold and helped restore over 120 historic properties all over town. During the period that we worked to plan and raise money for the Station we also bought and sold the church that is now La Cava restaurant, the Salisbury Emporium, and the “Zimmermans block,” five historic buildings on N Main Street which we bought at foreclosure and sold with protective covenants. We were also given the Bell Block building, which was sold to Thread Shed and recently restored by Bill Green into apartments on the upper floors.
After the successful fund-raising campaign for the Station. We did not use the Station for “shops and restaurants” but used it as an events center which hosted weddings, fund raisers, community gatherings, class reunions, oyster roasts, fish fries and events that left great memories for many Salisbury residents. The station was also featured at the Smithsonian in Washington as part of their Railroad exhibit.
For some years income actually exceeded the costs of operating the Station, but for the majority of the time costs exceeded the income, plus operating the Station and the events center consumed our limited staff, and we had to divert attention away from our central mission and away from the revolving fund. The mission of HSF is "To preserve, protect, and revitalize the historic fabric of Salisbury and Rowan County." There is nothing in our mission statement about operating an events center.
When Mayor Karen Alexander approached us on behalf of the city in March of 2022 to let us know they were applying for a grant to purchase and restore the Station as a multi modal transportation hub for the region, we began serious negotiations to sell the Station.
I came back on the board in 2023 and became president in 2024. That year the board appointed a Task Force of board members and community leaders, chaired by Whitney Wallace to seek information from parties interested in purchasing the Station. We talked to out-of-town developers, one local group, and the City of Salisbury. Over time we settled on the proposal made by the City of Salisbury.
The board had set the goal of selling the Station after multiple board retreats over several years that recommended we sell the Station and return to our original mission. Negotiations proceeded for the next two years and were finalized in the fall of last year and the Station was sold in December 2025.
I would like to thank former Mayor Karen Alexander, Mayor Tamara Sheffield and city manager Jim Greene, Graham Corriher, Wendy Bringle and the city staff who continued to champion the project until we agreed to sell the Station to the city in 2025.
There are so many to thank, Edward Clement, who had the original vision for the Station, Margaret Kluttz who with Chris Whitton raised the money to restore it. Whitney Wallace who chaired our Station Task Force. Kimberly Stieg and Rachel Fink, our foundation staff, our board, and the Salisbury City Council, the list goes on.
Now that the Station is sold many things will happen, first of all $27 million will be spent to make improvements to the area and to turn the Depot into a first-class railroad station again - its original purpose. It will provide a much needed second passenger platform which we do not have now. It will open up the possibility of rail service to Asheville in the future and once track upgrades are made it will mean many more train stops in Salisbury.
It will be a “multi modal” transportation hub meaning that when you get off the train you can board a city bus, uber, taxi, bicycle, or you can transfer to an intra city bus. City offices will be located in the office sections of the station, and it will once again be an active “people place” and a gleaming symbol of Salisbury.
Since Federal and state money will be used, all renovations will be governed by section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which means that all materials and designs must be approved by the State Office of Historic Preservation in Raleigh.
Because it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and in the Railroad Corridor Historic District any exterior changes must be approved by the city Historic Preservation Commission. Additionally it was designated a local Landmark in 2019, which means that not only changes to the exterior, but also interior changes must be approved by the Historic Preservation Commission. We have also placed private preservation covenants to protect parts of the building that were not otherwise be protected.
Over half of the money that Historic Salisbury Foundation receives from the sale will be put back into the community through our revolving fund so we can continue our work downtown, on North Main Street, Park Avenue, Livingstone college historic district, Fulton Heights, the Ellis Graded school district, and other historic districts and sites in the city and county.
This is truly a visionary project that our children and grandchildren will thank us for. It is like we waited 40 years for the best project for our beloved Station and here it is! Thank you!
