Hamlet Depot Board Member, Dewey Brower, receiving the grant check from Angie Averitte, Superintendent of the CSX Hamlet Terminal.

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Hamlet Depot & Museums manager, Miranda Chavis, receiving the grant check from Angie Averitte, Superintendent of the CSX Hamlet Terminal.

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CSX Hamlet Terminal is helping the Hamlet Depot & Museums give Richmond County residents some insight into the history of Hamlet.

Hamlet Depot & Museums is establishing a self-guided walking tour of downtown Hamlet.

Miranda Chavis, the museum manager of Hamlet Depot & Museums and the downtown coordinator for the City of Hamlet, said she travelled to Boston, Mass., and walked Boston’s Freedom Trail. While walking the trail, Chavis got the idea to bring the Freedom Trail to Hamlet. Given the name the Seaboard Trail, Chavis said the trail will “turn downtown Hamlet into a town wide museum.”

“As you walk you will learn all of these amazing bits of history,” she said. The Seaboard Trail will connect the Depot, the railroad, and the historic buildings that grew as a result of the Seaboard Railroad boom. The trail will be marked by a painted line on the sidewalk with painted dots in front of different historical points of interest. Plaques or a brochure will give information about the point of interest.

The Seaboard Trail will encourage visitors to explore more than the Hamlet Depot & Museums.

CSX Hamlet Terminal gave the first donation to make this trail happen. The grant was for $1,000 and will go toward funding the trail.

“We are very excited by the support of CSX,” Chavis said. “They are great corporate citizens to the community,” she said.

Angie Averitte, superintendent of the CSX Hamlet Terminal, said that CSX wants to be “good corporate neighbors.”

“We have a lot to offer to the community ,” Averitte said. She said that Hamlet is a town steeped in railroad traditions.

CSX Hamlet Terminal is a train sorting station where trains come in, get separated, segregated, and then re-assembled based on their destinations.

For further information regarding CSX and its support of the community, contact Averitte at 910-205-6319. For any information regarding the Seaboard Trail, contact Chavis at 910-417-7791.

— Staff Writer Laura Edington can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 18, or by email at ledington@heartlandpublications.com.