
Call it a preservation cliché—an eleventh-hour appeal to a corporate good citizen stops the bulldozer in its treads—but that is what happened when national preservation leaders and congressmen weighed in on behalf of Huntsville’s Memphis and Charleston Freight Depot. Norfolk Southern’s Chairman David Goode agreed to hand the building over to the Alabama Historical Commission and donate funds targeted toward its demolition to help stabilize the building. The AHC added the building to its endangered properties and allocated emergency funds. It will be held by the Historic Huntsville Foundation until a local group is able to take possession and restore it. “It was nervewrackingly close, but we did it,” said AHC Executive Director Lee H. Warner. “This is a real preservation success story. Now all we have to do is find a use and the money.”