Strawberry Field Became Bristol Depot Lot

It is not generally known that the Bristol Depot, that has been recently so well restored, stands on what was once a large wild strawberry field.
Malinda King Anderson, a daughter of the Rev. James King, who was born and reared on the vast King plantation, well remembered and often spoke of this beautiful field.
In season, it made a splash of red in the midst of the green King meadows. These berries grew in such profuse abundance that the hoofs of horses and cattle would become as red as if painted.
The King’s Meadows began just back of the First Baptist Church and extended westward across the Beaver Flats and then upward to include Solar Hill to about Oak Street.
The latter section was known as the Upper Meadows. The portion of the meadows that became downtown Bristol and four acres beyond the depot lot were sold to Joseph R. Anderson in 1852 and upon these acres he laid out the original town of Bristol.
Just why such a large field of strawberries developed in the midst of King’s Meadows, no one could tell. A similar field existed in Strawberry Plains Tenn.
Strangely, that field belonged to the only sister of Rev. James King (Sarah King Williams).
When the route of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad was finally determined, it lay directly through this field of wild strawberries. This route left the Goodson lands at Beaver Creek and then proceeded through the strawberry fields, extending 1,200 feet to within 5 feet of the state line.
It was then that Rev. King generously donated a tract of land for the terminal depot.
This lot began at the state line and extended northward to join the Goodson land at Beaver Creek.
It was roughly bounded on the north by present Washington Street and on the south of what is now Martin Luther King Boulevard (formerly old Front Street).
This depot lot took in virtually all the old wild strawberry field.
It should be pointed out that a large spring flowed from the bank a few feet from the west door of the depot. It was called the Strawberry Spring.
Joseph Anderson planned to build his home just across from this spring but finally chose the lot that is now the southwest corner of State and Martin Luther King Boulevard. 
The building of this first depot and the laying of the rails, plus a wood yard (the train engines were then fired by wood) destroyed much of the wild strawberry field.
Soon after the first depot was built, three or four houses built for railroad employees (sometimes called “section houses”) were built near the Beaver Creek crossing of Washington Street. This destroyed more of the strawberry field.
Then in 1881, a large freight station was built. This covered much of the remaining area where the wild strawberries so profusely grew.
As the succeeding three stations were built, each became larger and thus, more and more of the old field was covered.
There is much evidence that small strawberry plants sprung up in other parts of King’s Meadows.
Mrs. Joseph Anderson once told that her husband, while showing a town lot that he had for sale on Lee Street, found a small cluster of these berries still growing.
He pulled them up, brought them home to his new residence at 516 Anderson St. and there had them planted as a reminder of the once large field of them on the depot lot. They remained in that yard for years.
The late Margaret Anderson Piper, a granddaughter of Joseph Anderson, remembered seeing them there.
As I walked across the northern portion of the depot lot in the spring of 1956, I came upon a cluster of wild strawberries. I still think they were a remnant of the old wild strawberry field.

BUD PHILLIPS is a local historian and author. He can be reached at (276) 466-6435.