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(rshsdepot) Hopkinton, MA
From the Boston Daily News...
The Old Railroad Station: Historic landmark emerges
from retirement
By Cathy Flynn
Tuesday, May 7, 2002
For half a century, the former Hopkinton railroad
station has lived in obscurity behind a Pond Street home.
The building's faded red exterior, decaying roof and aging
wood floor only hint at its glory days as a passenger depot
on Main Street, at the site where Hopkinton Lumber is today.
But if the Historical Commission's vision is realized, this
historic landmark will get a new life near Ice House Pond as
a tourist information center and shelter for ice skaters in
the winter.
The old station took its first steps out of retirement last
weekend, when a crew dismantled it and loaded it onto a
flatbed truck for a journey to Weston Nurseries, which will
store the structure until it can be moved to Ice House Pond.
"The station would go where the bus shelter is now, at the
site where the ice house once was," said Michelle Gates of
the Historical Commission.
"We're hoping to have a tourist information center on one
side, with bus schedules, hiking maps, old photos and
information from area nonprofits. On the other side,
we'll have benches for people putting on their skates."
A team of people on the Historical Commission, many of them
also members of the Hopkinton Historical Society, has begun
planning the depot's renaissance. Gates' husband, Mark, an
architect, has developed site plans and a rendering of how
the relocated building would look. Others on the team include
Roger and Marilyn Mezzitt, Ron Yankee and Rose Leveille.
"We want to save this building," said Leveille. "It's part
of our history."
Gates said reconstructing and restoring the building will
require volunteers and money, more money than the $12,000
the town allocated for the project last fall at a special
Town Meeting.
The Conservation Commission must approve the project since
the new site is within 100 feet of a wetlands area, and
Hopkinton Building Inspector Dick Bowker must also review
the plans and check the restored building to ensure that
it meets today's codes.
The Historical Commission is hoping for some help from
Scouting groups and other volunteers, and from Home Depot,
which has a program that provides free materials for
restorations of historically significant buildings.
Built in 1872, the old passenger rail station was in service
for about 40 years. Its last role was as a stop in a loop
service that took travelers by rail from Boston to Framingham,
Ashland, Hopkinton, Milford, Bellingham, Franklin, Walpole and
Readville before heading back to Boston.
The train service was abandoned in 1912, and in the early 1950s
the station was relocated to 110 Pond St., behind a home built
in 1843.
Back then the property was the Leman dairy farm, and a herdsman
lived in the house. The old station took its place next to a
creamery, pump house and barn, all antique structures that are
still part of the property.
Longtime Hopkinton residents remember the day when the station
was moved to Pond Street. "I worked on a milk truck with my
older brother, and we'd take raw milk from Maplewood Farm on
Hayden Rowe to the Leman Farm creamery to have it pasteurized,"
recalled Bowker, who was 12 years old when the building was moved.
"That part of Pond Street used to be called Tunnel Road, and
I remember taking the truck up Tunnel Road and seeing this
massive building on the road in front of us." Bowker said that
he and his brother backed up the truck all the way to West Elm
Street so that they could reroute their delivery.
The ensuing years were not kind to the old station. Weather
and nesting squirrels had faded its red paint and pockmarked
and disfigured its roof.
Its resurrection began when the Sweetapple family, which
bought the former herdsman's residence several years ago
and has added onto it, needed more back yard space but
wanted to preserve the historic building.
Family members approached the Historical Commission last
year about adopting the building, and the commission
wholeheartedly accepted. The commission pitched the project
at a special Town Meeting last fall, and the result was a
$12,000 grant from the town.
Last weekend a crew from Architectural Resources, a firm
that specializes in restoring older buildings, was carefully
taking apart the aging structure. Because it would not fit
under the Rte. 495 overpass, the building had to be taken
apart and laid flat.
Over two days the crew carefully removed the roof and the 4-foot
overhang around the building, then separated the walls of the
structure at the corners. Working in Saturday's heavy winds,
the crew removed the roof carefully to avoid creating an air
pocket that could have blown over the fragile structure.
Some planks were removed individually and numbered so they
may be put back together in the future.
"The roof was a mess, but the subflooring was in perfect
shape," said Architectural Resources owner John Canham.
The interior walls, built from yellow pine, also aged
well and can be part of the restoration.
The walls were laid flat on a truck, which moved under
a special permit for oversized loads to Weston Nurseries.
It's uncertain when the structure will emerge from storage
and move to its new home at Ice House Pond, although Gates
is hoping it can move there in the fall. The house must be
reconstructed and restored wall by wall, and that will
require money and time.
Anyone interested in helping to restore the former railroad
station or in donating money toward the restoration should
contact Michelle Gates at 508-435-8288. Donations may be
mailed to the Historical Commission at Town Hall, 18 Main St.
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #369
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org