History Hindsights

Many people know that the railroad tracks once were on street level through downtown High Point, and in the 1930s, the massive project of “lowering the tracks” created the cut and brought the tracks down 35 feet. Nicknamed by some the “F.D.R. Canal” because of its New Deal funding, the below-grade tracks eliminated the railroad crossings in the downtown, but cost three men their lives. Once city government received approval from the Public Works Administration in 1937, the project got underway, drastically changing the landscape of High Point’s downtown. 

The eroding embankment of the railway corridor along a segment of Washington Street has been a dangerous problem for many years. Recently, the City of High Point hired a Kernersville construction company to realign the street path and install guardrails and sidewalks, and the North Carolina Railroad Company has agreed to stabilize the embankment. Many people will know that the tracks once were on street level, and in the 1930s, the massive project of “lowering the tracks” created the cut dividing north and south High Point. Costing nearly $1.5 million and taking over 10 years to complete, eliminating the railroad crossings changed the landscape of downtown, cost three men their lives, and made an impact on the development of the city.

For most of the last hundred years, North Carolina’s Piedmont was the manufacturing heartland of the state. High Point regarded itself as “the Industrial City.” There was a time, however, when large tracts of undeveloped and agricultural land lay between the centers of industry, enticing the nation’s wealthiest men to establish hunting retreats. Easily accessible by railway from New York City, these estates flourished for just a few decades. The High Point Museum’s exhibit explores this phenomenon, focusing on Clarence Hungerford Mackay’s Deep River Lodge, located in Jamestown. The "Fields and Feathers, Hunting at Deep River Lodge 1895-1935," exhibit runs from April 2023 through January 2024.