Last week a Gazette reader sent in an email and two contemporary print articles about the construction of the Underpass. The dates were in 1936.
The first, a paragraph in the Raleigh News & Observer for May 8, 1936 read: “Construction on the underpass which is to run under the Seaboard Railway tracks on the east side of the Wake Forest College campus is well underway. Resident Engineer S.O. Southall says the project will be completed around November 15.”
The second was from the “WF College Alumni News Dec 1936” and included a picture of the Underpass. “Here is new railroad underpass which has just been opened to traffic. You are looking at the east wall of the campus.
“Traffic now goes through Wake Forest over State highway number 91 leading to Wendell and Washington, and highway number 94, leading to Spring Hope.
“The underpass has been under process of construction for about six months, including the grading and preliminary work. U.S. Highway No. 1 runs north and south between the campus and the railroad.
“The highway, now some distance below its former level, was opened to traffic last Saturday, and the stone wall surrounding the campus has been rebuilt at the point where grading of the road made its removal necessary.”
Wake Forest residents were less complimentary. Dr. I Beverly Lake, lifelong town resident, called it a “red clay gulch” on the west side, and the Wake Forest Garden Club members made it their mission to plant trees, bushes and flowers on the bank.
The construction also necessitated moving the college arch from its site at the end of Wait Avenue southward to the end of Roosevelt Avenue. The construction of that short strip of road also led to a triangular piece of land and a triangular building, once a dry-cleaning business and now — for at least 20 years — vacant.
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