The tracks are long gone, but Purcellville's train station still occupies the ground it has stood on since 1904. It replaced a depot built at about the same time that the railroad arrived in 1874 and accommodated passengers, mail, and freight.
The railroad brought a business boom. Farmers received feed, fertilizer, and farm machinery by rail. In turn they shipped grain, livestock, and dairy products eastward. Mills, manufacturers, and retail stores sprang up nearby.
Like other railroad towns in western Loudoun County, Purcellville was a popular summer resort. Former hotels and boarding houses still line Maine Street. In the late 19th- and early 20th centuries special trains brought hundreds to the summer Bush Meeting, a few days of religious revivals, prohibition lectures, and entertainment.
September's Emancipation Day saw the arrival of African Americans for an annual day-long celebration of freedom. Segregation laws regulated these people to the "colored" waiting room for the return trains.
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