A Roanoke landmark heavily damaged by fire is getting a major makeover.
The former passenger station of the Virginian Railway is on Williamson Road not far from Community Hospital.
If you've driven by here the last few years, you've seen nothing but a charred out building surrounded by fencing.
In January 2001, a large fire gutted the station.
Fire investigators say a homeless person started the fire in a trash barrel and the flames spread to a box trailer and the building.
For more than a decade, preservation and railroad groups have been working to raise funds to restore a building that is more than a 100 years old.
On Wednesday, they held a groundbreaking.
"It will be something I think Roanoke will appreciate because if you went downtown today probably 90 out of 100 people have never heard of the Virginian Railway and the Virginian was a major part of Roanoke from 1809 to 1959 when it was merged with the Norfolk Western," said Skip Salmon, Friends of the Virginian Railway.
The group has raised more than a million dollars through private donors and grants.
Construction has already started and should be completed by the end of the year.
It will eventually house a museum and have retail space available.
