Prince Station
Three trains a week stop at a streamlined Art Moderne depot with almost nothing else around it — Prince Station serves a place so remote that the station itself is practically the town.
At a glance
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway rebuilt its Prince depot between 1945 and 1946, giving it a horizontal, streamlined profile — Art Moderne, the railroad-modern cousin of Art Deco — designed by the Cleveland firm Garfield, Harris, Robinson & Schafer. The station reopened to passenger traffic on May 4, 1946, and was formally dedicated on June 26 that year. Today Amtrak’s Cardinal calls at Prince three days a week on its run between Chicago and New York, making this one of the least-used, most photogenic stops on the entire national network.
Key facts
- Rebuilt: 1945-May 4, 1946; dedicated June 26, 1946
- Architects: Garfield, Harris, Robinson & Schafer (Cleveland, Ohio)
- Style: Art Moderne
- Address: 5034 Stanaford Road (WV 41), Prince, West Virginia
- Service: Amtrak Cardinal (Chicago-New York), 3x weekly; FY2025 ridership 1,645 passengers
- Setting: Within New River Gorge National Park and Preserve
History
A station has stood at Prince since 1886, rebuilt once in 1915 before the Chesapeake and Ohio commissioned the current Art Moderne depot in the mid-1940s. The C&O was, at the time, one of the last major American railroads still investing heavily in passenger-station architecture, and Prince — a junction deep in the New River Gorge with no real town around it — got the same design language the railroad used on its flagship stations.
Passenger rail service nationwide contracted sharply after 1971, when Amtrak took over intercity trains, but Prince survived as a scheduled stop, now served by the Cardinal on its three-times-weekly run. The Fayette County Commission owns the depot today; it remains unstaffed, reachable only by the trains that still call there and the road that winds down into the gorge.
What you see
The depot’s low, horizontal massing and rounded corners are textbook Art Moderne: a style built from the same geometric vocabulary as Art Deco but stretched into long, aerodynamic lines meant to evoke speed and motion — fitting for a building whose entire purpose is trains passing through. A canopy roughly 500 feet long, with rounded ends and stainless-steel lettering, still shelters the platform.
Inside, a terrazzo floor embeds the Chesapeake and Ohio’s “Chessie” kitten logo, the railway’s sleeping-cat mascot from its famous “Sleep Like a Kitten” sleeper-car advertising campaign — a small, still-legible piece of mid-century American railroad branding underfoot.
Practical information
- Status: Active unstaffed Amtrak station, wheelchair-accessible via lift
- Service: Amtrak Cardinal, 3 days a week each direction — check schedules before visiting
- Photography: Exterior and platform freely photographable
- Setting: Isolated within New River Gorge National Park and Preserve — plan fuel and provisions ahead
Getting there
Prince Station sits on WV 41 (Stanaford Road) in Fayette County, reached by a winding descent into the New River Gorge from US 19. There is no public transit beyond the train itself; visitors typically arrive by car or as Amtrak passengers. The nearest larger town is Beckley, about 15 miles away.
Nearby
- New River Gorge National Park and Preserve — surrounds the station on all sides
- New River Gorge Bridge — one of the park’s signature landmarks, a short drive north
- Beckley, West Virginia — nearest town with services, about 15 miles away
Sources
- Wikipedia: Prince station
- Amtrak station information, Prince (PRC)
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