CHEATHAM COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — One Middle Tennessee town is working to keep a piece of its past alive.

In Pegram, a former train depot is central to a new community vision.

"It can go all the way to Memphis, and it goes to Nashville, and then it spurs off to different places," Pegram resident Melissa Sawyer-McWright explained.

Built in 1898, the Pegram train station was once the heart of this small town when it was unincorporated and before it was known as Pegram. Back then, a nickel could get you to Nashville.

"This building, this train track, has just been all my life," Sawyer-McWright said. "I don't know any other thing other than that."

Sawyer-McWright is a fourth-generation Pegram resident. Her family home still sits next door to the depot.

"This picture is my grandmother," Sawyer-McWright said, pointing at an image. "Her name was Bueller Sawyer. This is my father, Dorris Sawyer, as a baby."

In 2025, she is carrying her family legacy and working to preserve what is left.

"At one time, the mail hook hung on the outside of this, so when the train would pull by, they wouldn't even have to get off the train. They'd just pick up the bag of mail and tale off," Sawyer-McWright explained.

In 1957, Sawyer-McWright's father and other founding members bought the depot and turned it into a community center.

"I don't know that when they started this club that, they knew what they were going to do," Sawyer-McWright said.

For the people of Pegram, the depot was just the start of community gatherings.

"We didn't have city water here; they pushed for that," Sawyer-McWright said. "They pushed for us to have an elementary school built here."

From a men's club to a dance hall, today, it is one of the most popular venues in town.

"The community club has a fish fry every year and a BBQ on the Fourth of July, and people come from all over the county and even outside the county," Pegram's Mayor, Charles Morehead, said.

Those events help fund the depots' future.

"Once you have a piece of history, don't do away with it," Morehead said. "Keep it for future generations."

"I do believe that the founding fathers would be extremely happy with what is continuing in this building," Sawyer-McWright said.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/on-tour-middle-tn/pegram-train-depot/