Yemassee, SC (YEM)

15 Wall Street
Yemassee, SC 29945

Station Hours

Annual Ticket Revenue (FY 2023): $769,466
Annual Station Ridership (FY 2023): 6,960

• Ownerships
• Routes Served
• Contact
• Local Community Links

• Facility Ownership: Town of Yemassee
• Parking Lot Ownership: Town of Yemassee
• Platform Ownership: CSX Transportation
• Track Ownership: CSX Transportation

• Palmetto
• Silver Meteor

Todd Stennis
Regional Contact
governmentaffairsnol@amtrak.com
For information about Amtrak fares and schedules, please visit Amtrak.com or call 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245).

• Town of Yemassee
• Yemassee Shrimp Festival
• South Carolina Lowcountry

The Yemassee station consists of a platform with a sheltered area adjacent to the old Charleston and Western Carolina Railroad depot built in 1955. The city purchased the building from CSX and completed the transfer of ownership on September 17, 2010. Community members gathered at the depot on that occasion to celebrate as a representative from CSX presented the deed to Mayor J.L. Goodwin. The town also purchased approximately 0.64 acres of adjoining land.

The Yemassee Revitalization Corporation, a nonprofit organization formed in 2008, planned to revitalize downtown to stimulate the local economy. The group wanted to restore the depot and worked to find funding for the renovation project. In 2011, a British reality show filmed in Yemassee, which resulted in a full cosmetic renovation of the depot’s exterior to include a new gabled roof, siding and a wrap-around porch. In summer 2016 the town received funds that will allow interior improvements to proceed. Work will include installation of a new electrical system and renovation of the restrooms.

Yemassee sits on the border between Beaufort and Hampton counties and takes its name from an influential American American tribe that was an important ally of South Carolinian settlers until the Yamassee War of 1715.

In 1864, General Sherman’s Union army came through Yemassee on its March to the Sea from Atlanta, systematically burning public and private buildings. All of the churches in the area were destroyed except for the Presbyterian church, which was used as a hospital by the Union army. Blood stains are still visible on the floor.

Between 1914 and 1964, the Marine Corps used the Yemassee depot as a gateway to its Parris Island Recruit Training Depot. More than 500,000 recruits passed through the train station; half of them came during World War II. Because of this traffic, in 1942 the Marine Corps leased a facility from the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to house incoming recruits. The barracks still stands today, and townspeople are seeking to restore this historic structure and open a museum in it.

Just outside Yemassee is Auldbrass Plantation, whose main house and outbuildings were designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built between 1940 and 1951. Commissioned by C. Leigh Stevens of the Savannah River Lumber Company, the complex’s structures were based on a hexagonal module and incorporate native cypress wood. It is said that W. Somerset Maugham also wrote his book, The Razor’s Edge, near Yemassee.

Today, Yemassee is experiencing population growth and a small building boom due to its proximity to Hilton Head Island and Beaufort. The main local festival is the annual Shrimp Festival in September, as shrimp baiting is a major occupation in this coastal area.

Platform with Shelter