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A Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railway train pulls out of Broad Street Station on its way to Washington on May 20, 1945.
Staff photo
First, it was a train station serving the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac and the Atlantic Coast Line railroads. The first train left the station on Jan. 6, 1919, and the last on Nov. 15, 1975. In between, train service at the station peaked during World War II, when a record 33,324 passengers came and went in one day in 1943.
Brad Shaulis of Richmond carries his son, Harrison, along The Green at the Science Museum of Virginia on May 18, 2023.
Daniel
Sangjib Min, TIMES-
DISPATCH
But the end of train service was the beginning of a new chapter for a building designed by the same New York architect who created the Jefferson Memorial, the National Gallery of Art and the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
The state bought the building in 1976 and opened the first exhibit in the new Science Museum of Virginia the next year. Now, lovers of science come and go instead of trains.
