Summerfield, NC

History

Summerfield is a community in north Guilford County at an altitude of 881 feet. It was settled about 1769 by Charles Bruce, later a Revolutionary patriot, and known as Bruce’s Crossroads until 1812 when a post office was established and the community renamed in honor of the evangelist, John Summerfield (1798–1825). Site of a Revolutionary skirmish between Lee and Tarleton and a campsite of the British army under General Charles O’Hara of the Coldstream Guards, February 12, 1781. In 1998, the town was incorporated to avoid being annexed by Greensboro. You can learn more at the Summerfield town web page.

In 1943, Summerfield had a capacity for 26 cars. There is no track through the town now, although the roadbed can still be seen in a rails-to-trails path.

Station & Depot

We have had a difficult time finding a photo of the Summerfield depot. Dewey Trogdon had a contest and this is the best photo of the depot that was entered in the contest.

The pictorial history of Summerfield by Gladys Scarlette (1995) has a photo with the station in the background which is sufficient to show that it was built along the lines of many of the A&Y stations, but the details are nearly impossible to discern.

The valuation survey fills in what the photographs cannot. In the fall of 1916 the ICC engineers recorded Summerfield’s depot as a standard Type 3 combination station, “same in all respects to other Type 3 stations on this valuation section” — the same board-and-batten pattern found up the line at Dalton, King, and their neighbors. It had a metal-shingle roof, a high platform on all sides, and a chert passenger platform of about 200 square yards; its oil house followed a standard plan dated November 1905. The section crew’s quarters filled in the rest of the picture: two standard dwellings (one with a rough-board lean-to added across the back), a tool house, a chicken house, and a well dug 36 feet deep and lined with terra-cotta pipe. Their supply house was the body of a retired boxcar — a piece of make-do the railroad repeated at section after section.

Track Diagram

Industries Southern Railway Shippers Guide, 1916

A Southern Railway Shippers Guide from 1916 indicates the following industries in addition to LCL shipments, passengers, and mail were located in Summerfield and used the A&Y for delivering and receiving products by rail (although some may have used the station or team track rather than having a dedicated siding). I will add other industries as I receive information about them:

Odds and Ends

I have corresponded with Ms. Gladys Scarlette, the author of a pictorial history of Summerfield, first published in 1995. My copy arrived! This is a very interesting book with lots of photographs of businesses, schools, and other buildings from many different periods in the life of this town. Ms. Scarlette, a native of Summerfield, has done a wonderful job putting together this collection. All towns should be lucky enough to have someone like Ms. Scarlette who is willing and able to preserve a sense of the past so that future generations can understand their heritage. It seems that Barnes & Noble carries the book. Thanks to Bill Brueckmann, another Summerfield resident, for alerting me to this book! Hopefully, I can obtain permission from some of the photographers to place some of the photos from the book here on the website.

Here are a couple of photos of an old brick building that used to be a hardware store and is currently being renovated to perhaps become the town hall.

This building used to be within sight of the A&Y tracks. I really think that a model of this building would clearly state: Summerfield on the A&Y.

Dewey Trogdon also found this in-service photo of an unidentified A&Y consolidation steaming out of Summerfield at speed.

If you know a better scene for me to model, or if you have historic photographs of Summerfield you would be willing to share with me for research or others on this website, please contact me.