By Jessica Cole and Ben Swenson

You would hardly guess by strolling down the timeworn Main Street in Pamplin City, Virginia that this small hamlet was once renowned as a giant in the manufacture of a very specific product.

Today, Pamplin is a quiet town that straddles the line between Appomattox and Prince Edward County and is home to about 200 people. Time has seen Main Street begin to crumble and erode where it stands; the gaunt structures represent another railroad boomtown stalled by the decline of the industry. When I visited, the grass was high and the warm air seemed to bring the faint smell of steam engines of centuries past.

Pamplin City was named after Nicholas Calvin Pamplin in 1854, but the date of settlement for the area is not known – only that it was called Merriman’s Shop according to early records. Pamplin owned over 25 acres of land in the area, which he donated a chunk of for a projected railway system, and as a gesture of thanks, the town was later named in his honor. The railroad, and all the surrounding businesses, thrived in the 19th century in the golden age of trains. Pamplin became a stop where two railroad lines converged, and businesses and professional services gladly accommodated all that traffic.

But the rails were not the only notable assets this town once possessed. The other was, quite literally, beneath residents’ feet. The region’s earliest settlers discovered that the local clay, found in abundance just beneath the topsoil, made exceptional pipes – a necessity when tobacco smoking was a ubiquitous habit. As a cottage industry, locals had been making clay pipes for sale since the mid-18th century. But where the local population saw supplemental income, an Ohio entrepreneur saw opportunity. William Merrill established the Pamplin Pipe Factory sometime around 1880, constructing a large workshop and a kiln and outfitting the business with molds needed for mass production.

In 1898, the Richmond Dispatch (precursor to the city’s current Times-Dispatch) claimed the operation was the largest clay pipe factory in the world. Three-and-a-half decades later, the Farmville Herald said the factory could produce a million pipes a month at full capacity. The factory’s own advertisement claimed they could make 25,000 a day and fire in the kiln 200,000 at a time.

But time marched on and changes passed Pamplin by.

The rise of the automobile led to drastic declines in railroad transportation, meaning trainloads of passengers no longer came. One of the rail lines that passed through Pamplin was eventually converted by Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation into High Bridge Trail State Park. The rail-to-trail park’s westernmost trailhead is just outside Pamplin’s town limits. Just like the Main Street that once pulsed with life, the railroad is a shadow of what it once was.

As for Pamplin’s other main enterprise, changes in the world’s smoking habits shrunk demand for the clay pipes made there. Smokers switched to the more transportable and less fragile cigarettes. Today Pamplin pipe heads – many of which the factory once fashioned into novelties such as Indian tomahawks and human faces – are collectibles that can be found in antique stores and auctions. The pipe factory still stands, including the main building, kiln and chimney, but in a deteriorated state. The property is owned by the Archaeological Conservancy, a nonprofit that protects sensitive historical sites around the nation.

Pamplin City was added to Preservation Virginia’s most Endangered Historic Sites in 2014 in an effort to generate funding sources to preserve this town. The historic core remains threatened by time and apathy, but there have been a few small victories, such as the transformation of the onetime railroad depot that now holds the town offices, event rental space and a branch of the library

While most of Main Street did not stand the test of time, the town of Pamplin City is inhabited… albeit lacking the lively spark I’m sure it once held.

One of my favorite things to do when visiting a new location is imagining all the people in the former homes and businesses – the clothes they would be wearing, or what they might be purchasing as they shop door-to-door. On my visit to Pamplin I had an incredible stroke of luck; the owner of some of the abandoned buildings was having a yard sale of all the items, now antiques, left inside. I walked through lines of old trunks, mirrors, dishware… you name it. For those of you who like antiquing I’d liken the experience to a Christmas morning in your adolescence.

The abandoned business buildings on Main Street do have an owner and are therefore private property. However, the street is perfectly fine to walk if you happen to be in the area. The railroad is right across the street from the town and there is plenty of parking to be found if you decide you want to check it out.