Contoocook Railroad Depot

Contoocook Railroad Depot
Location 896 Main Street, Contoocook, NH 03229
PO Box 789
Off NH 103 and NH 127
Hopkinton, New Hampshire
(village of Contoocook)
Coordinates 43°13′21″N 71°42′47″W / 43.22250°N 71.71306°WCoordinates: 43°13′21″N 71°42′47″W / 43.22250°N 71.71306°W
Built 1849-50, renovated 1999–2013
Architectural style Mid-Nineteenth Century Two Story Wooden Frame
Governing body Contoocook Riverway Association 501(c)3
NRHP Reference # 06000131 [1]
Added to NRHP March 16, 2006

The Contoocook Railroad Depot is located in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, United States, in the village of Contoocook. The depot was completed in 1849 as one of the first substantial railroad passenger stations west of Concord on the Concord and Claremont Railroad. The building is one of the best preserved of a small number of gable-roofed railroad stations surviving from the first decade of rail development in New Hampshire. The station exemplifies the pioneering period of rail development in the state. The Contoocook Railroad Depot is significant under National Register Criterion A as a building that served and controlled the junction of two of the earliest short line railroads of New Hampshire, the Concord and Claremont Railroad and the Contoocook Valley Railroad. The building provided essential passenger service and communications for these interrelated lines. Under Criterion A, the depot symbolizes the impact of a new technology on a village that had been at the periphery of Hopkinton's economic life. With the arrival of the railroad, Contoocook Village assumed greater economic importance than old Hopkinton Village, becoming the center of most of the town's manufacturing and commerce. The depot is therefore associated with a historic change that significantly contributed to the development of the community and state.

It is one of the earliest and least altered depots of the 1850 period in New Hampshire. Displaying the Greek Revival style, with modifications that proclaim its identity as a new building type, the depot is an important artifact in the history and evolution of railroad architecture in New Hampshire.

Under Criterion A, the period of significance extends from 1849 to 1955, the arbitrary fifty-year cut-off date for National Register listings. Under Criterion C, the period of significance is 1849.

The Contoocook Railroad Depot possesses integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association for both periods of significance. The building's setting has lost some integrity through the partial removal of railroad facilities in the vicinity, including a long-removed engine house, although the wooden railroad bridge remains nearby and is one of the most significant railroad structures that historically characterized the rail center in Contoocook Village.

Architectural significance

Because the Concord and Claremont Railroad remained a small and under-capitalized short line, and because capital investment in its property was limited even when the line was acquired by the larger Northern and Boston & Maine railroads, the Concord and Claremont line remained a virtual museum of early railroading structures and technologies. The long-continued practice of maintaining the Concord and Claremont Railroad with minimal investment caused the Contoocook Depot to survive to the present day as one of a very small group of comparable structures.

Stagecoaches were the first form of public land transportation and were the direct predecessors of railroads. Stage routes provided precedents for many of the basic elements of railroad operation, including corporate structuring, tickets, waybills, mail delivery, and the interconnection of travel routes served by various companies. The structures that served stage travel, and thus preceded railroad depots as transportation centers, were ordinary taverns. Taverns provided shelter for passengers, ticket sales, and mail and baggage accommodations for stage lines. Taverns took many forms, but almost all of them reflected a template provided by dwelling houses of their respective periods. Taverns were multi-purpose buildings, with the greater part of their facilities devoted to providing food and overnight shelter to their passengers, and with only incidental accommodations to their role as stopping places for public transportation.

Railroad stations, by contrast, represented an entirely original building type intended to serve a new technology and mode of travel. They provided no food, and offered only temporary shelter from the elements, but accommodated much larger numbers of travelers at any one time. As a consequence, depot buildings devoted most of their volume to large, warm waiting rooms, to mail and baggage storage, and to ticket sales, all provided adjacent to the tracks. Almost invariably, depot buildings offered both inside shelter from the elements, and also a measure of outside shelter afforded by widely overhanging eaves or adjacent sheds, especially welcome in warm weather.

Ladies Waiting Room fully restored to 1910 era

The majority of railroad depots constructed prior to the Civil War outside of major cities (where monumental masonry buildings were common) were rectangular wood-frame structures, oriented with their major axes parallel to the tracks, characterized by detailing in a simple Greek Revival style, and covered by gable roofs that exhibit a broad, sheltering overhang on at least two sides of the building. It appears that a majority of these buildings were also provided with a bay window on the track side, permitting the station superintendent to survey the tracks in both directions. The earliest depot buildings to survive in New Hampshire reflect the Greek Revival style in their details. These buildings also reflect the Greek Revival style in their overall design, with one important exception. Whereas Greek Revival-style buildings dating between 1830 and 1850 had raking and eaves cornices of a classic profile, placed close to the walls of the building, the earliest surviving railroad depots display roofs with exaggerated overhangs. Retaining the gable roof that was universal in the Greek Revival style, these buildings altered that type of roof by an exaggerated extension of their roof planes beyond the walls, creating sheltering eaves of six feet or more, especially on the track and road sides of the buildings. To support these unprecedented overhangs, diagonal braces support the tails of the rafters from below.

The exposed brace or bracket was unknown in Greek Revival architecture of the 1840s or 1850s. Exposed braces or truss elements were seen only rarely in the most modern buildings designed under the influence of romantic theorists like Alexander Jackson Downing. In such buildings, braces generally served an ornamental rather than a structural function. In railroad depots, by contrast, diagonal braces served to support the overhanging tails of the rafters. It was common to sheath the undersides of the braces and the projecting rafters of railroad stations, hiding these members and creating an enclosed soffit, as described above.

By the 1870s, many new depots were being designed with hipped roofs. Hipped roofs had the advantage of permitting equal overhangs on all four sides of the building, and the hipped roof was aesthetically compatible with broad overhangs, being reminiscent of pavilion roofs that had long been used in tropical locales. The earlier hip-roofed stations tended to reflect the stick style, while the later stations were often clad with wooden shingles and reflected the shingle style of the late 1800s.

Only one other such building remains on the earlier portion of the Concord and Claremont line between Concord and the original terminus in Bradford. That building is a two-story station in Warner, also built in 1849 and now altered to serve as an apartment house. Despite its two-story height, this station measures 24 by 50 feet (7.3 by 15.2 m), the same as the Contoocook Depot. During construction of the Concord and Claremont Railroad toward Bradford, the first terminus of the line, for some months, was at Warner. The unusual two-story design of the Warner Depot may reflect the temporary need to provide housing for employees as the railroad was pushed through difficult terrain toward Bradford, which remained the end of the line until 1871. In comparison with the Warner station, the Contoocook Depot is the least altered.

Other comparable depots on the Concord and Claremont line, and on its sister Contoocook Valley Railroad, have disappeared. Very similar stations once stood at West Concord and Bradford, but no longer exist. The Contoocook Valley Railroad, built at the same time as the Concord and Claremont by the same builder, Joseph Barnard (and joining the latter just west of the Contoocook Depot), once had nearly identical depots. The destroyed station at Hillsborough Bridge, the original terminus of the Contoocook Valley Railroad, was a virtual twin to the Contoocook Depot. Like the Contoocook and Warner buildings, it measured twenty-four by fifty feet.

Transportation significance

From its completion in 1849 until the last trains ran through Contoocook Village in the 1960s, the Contoocook Depot acted as the point of contact between the manufacturing and residential village and the broader commercial world. The depot served as the primary site of commercial activity for the entire township of Hopkinton. In 1817, when Eliphalet and Phinehas Merrill wrote the first Gazetteer of the State of New Hampshire, Contoocook Village had hardly come into existence, being then known as "Hill's Bridge" and as the site of water-powered mills operated by Benjamin Hill. The Merrills described Hopkinton strictly in terms of the older main village: "there is in this town a handsome village containing about 50 dwelling-houses, a congregational meeting-house, several stores, mechanic shops, etc." More than twenty years later, still before the advent of the railroad, Contoocook Village continued to be regarded as a place of largely unrealized potential. Writing in 1839, John Hayward described the village in The New England Gazetteer as "a thriving village on the Contoocook River, known as Hill's Bridge, or Contoocookville, where [there] is a valuable water power, and several mills."

During the early nineteenth century, the township of Hopkinton annually produced considerable quantities of sawn lumber in its several water-powered sawmills. Before the advent of the railroad, lumber that was surplus to the needs of local building was drawn by teams to the Merrimack River, where it was bound into cribs of sixteen-foot lumber. These were floated downriver to various markets through the locks that bypassed the falls and rapids. Despite such difficulty and labor in marketing local products, the people of Hopkinton were strongly opposed to the railroad when the idea was first broached in 1844. By 1849, however, Hopkinton town meetings began to vote on articles to accommodate the railroad, and many local citizens began to invest enthusiastically in railroad stock. In the fall of 1849, when the first train arrived from Concord, the Contoocook Depot became the site of a great celebratory banquet, served on tables placed under a shed at the station.

At first, rail connections from Contoocook largely focused on Concord. Travelers going east from Contoocook were able to connect to the Concord Railroad, thereby gaining rail access to Manchester, Nashua, Lowell, and Boston; or to the Northern Railroad, providing access to all towns on the route from Concord to West Lebanon on the Connecticut River and to White River Junction, Vermont; or to the Boston, Concord, and Montreal Railroad, thereby gaining access to Woodsville on the Connecticut River and to Wells River, Vermont.

Trains traveling northwesterly on the Concord and Claremont Railroad's own tracks were limited at first by the tracks' termination in Bradford, which was reached in July 1850. Not until the Newbury Cut was completed in 1871 were trains at last able to travel to Newport and finally, in 1872, to make contact with the Connecticut River at Claremont on the railroad's own tracks. Similarly, the Contoocook Valley Railroad, which connected with the Concord and Claremont in Contoocook, was initially completed only as far south as Hillsborough Bridge.

By 1855, barely six years after the arrival of the rails in Contoocook, Contoocookville had begun to reflect its future prominence as the active trading, manufacturing, and commercial center of the town of Hopkinton. In New Hampshire As It Is (1855), author Edwin A. Charlton noted that Contoocookville was "the junction of the Merrimack and Connecticut River Railroad and the Contoocook Valley Railroad, [and] is an active and thriving village." Charlton went on to note that "large quantities of lumber are manufactured here and transported on the railroads to various markets," and that there were in the village "one woolen factory, with a capital of $7000, and employing twelve hands; one tannery and currier's shop, with a capital of $6000; and nine sawmills."

By 1858, H. F. Waiting's Map of Merrimack County showed many manufactories and shops in Contoocookville. Among them were Kimball's carpenter shop, Osgood's carpenter shop, Merrill's cooper shop, Joab and David N. Patterson's woolen mill, Burnham and Brown's sawmill, grist mill, and shingle mill, a carriage shop, a mackerel kit manufactory, another sawmill, a blacksmith shop, and Abbott's hot houses. The compact part of the village also included two schoolhouses and the Contoocook Academy. By that time, the railroad depot was accompanied by a freight house, and the map implies that the building later known as the Kirk Building, which stands adjacent to the railroad station, was then owned by the railroad. As noted, the Contoocook Depot was located at the junction of the lines of two initially separate railroad corporations. A summary history of the incorporation and merger of the two lines that met near the depot is given in a description of the Concord and Claremont Railroad in the Thirty- Fifth Annual Report of the Railroad Commissioners of the State of New Hampshire (1879): This road is the outcome of a long series of conflicting and unsuccessful railroad schemes.

The old Concord and Claremont Railroad Company, chartered June 24, 1848, proposed to build a railroad from some point on the Concord Railroad, in Concord or Bow, to the Sullivan Railroad, in Claremont; and the Central Railroad Company, chartered on the same day, proposed to build a road from Manchester to the Sullivan road, at or near Claremont. These two corporations, in order to obviate conflicting interests, and to concentrate efforts for construction of a single road on a route that would be best for all concerned, were united under an act for that purpose passed June 8, 1853, the consolidated company taking the title of the Merrimack and Connecticut River Railroad company, which became the owner of the old Concord and Claremont Railroad that was completed from Concord to Bradford, 27 miles (43 km), July 10, 1850. The Contoocook River Railroad, chartered June 24, 1848, completed in 1849 from Contoocook to Hillsborough Bridge, 14.5 miles (23.3 km), and opened in December 1849, was united with the Merrimack and Connecticut River Railroad, under an act passed July 12, 1856, and, under another act of the same date, the mortgagees of the Contoocook Valley Railroad, chartered June 24, 1848, to connect the Concord road in Concord with Peterborough, were authorized to sell the Contoocook Valley road, with all its franchises and property, to the Merrimack and Connecticut River road.

The Sugar River Railroad, chartered July 7, 1856, to connect Bradford with the Sullivan Railroad in Claremont, a distance of 29 miles (47 km), was completed in 1872, and was, under the provisions of an act for that purpose, organized in a consolidation with the Merrimack and Connecticut River Railroad, October 31, 1873, under the title of the Concord and Claremont Railroad. It is thus seen that six chartered companies were consolidated in the new company, and that the old Concord and Claremont Company was chartered 25 years before the new Concord and Claremont company was organized. A controlling interest in the consolidation was owned by the Northern Railroad Company, which furnished the rolling stock, and essentially managed its operations. The later history of this line includes its lease by the Boston & Lowell Railroad between 1884 and 1887, operation by the Boston & Maine Railroad after 1887, sale of the line by the Boston & Maine to Samuel M. Pinsley of Boston in 1954, and Pinsley's incorporation of the line as the Concord and Claremont Railway Company, first as a Delaware corporation and then as a New Hampshire corporation. Pinsley progressively obtained permission to abandon various sections of the Claremont and Concord Railway trackage, as follows: West Concord to Contoocook, and West Hopkinton to Emerson, 1960; West Hopkinton-Contoocook-Bradford, 1961; Bradford to Newport, 1964; Newport to East Claremont, 1977; Concord to West Concord, 1984; East Claremont to Claremont Center, 1988; and small abandonments between Claremont and West Claremont, 1988 and 1994. The trackage on the old Contoocook Valley Railroad between Hillsborough and Emerson had been abandoned in 1942.

Ticket agent window fully restored to 1910 era

Throughout the period from 1849 to 1960, the Contoocook Depot was the commercial hub of Contoocook Village. The building not only served as the point of arrival and departure for travelers to and from the village, but also offered other forms of communication. The railway mail was delivered here, and for some years the depot served as the Contoocook Post Office. The depot was connected to the remainder of the consolidated Boston and Maine system by the railway telegraph, and also served the public as the local public telegraph office from 1866. The depot was connected to the Western Union system during the early twentieth century. When the first telephone connections were installed in Contoocook Village in 1884, one of two telephone offices was at the depot, with Amos H. Currier as agent.

The depot was the local office for Railway and American Express companies. Standing at the junction of the Concord and Claremont and the Contoocook Valley Railroad lines, the Contoocook Depot also served as the focus of a small but very active rail service center. The Schedule of Property Transferred by the Northern Railroad to the Boston & Lowell Railroad Corporation, Under Lease, In Effect June 1, 1884, shows that the Contoocook rail center then contained the following buildings: the depot, measuring 25 by 50 feet (7.6 by 15.2 m); a depot "ell," measuring 13 by 24 feet (4.0 by 7.3 m); a freight house, measuring 34 by 50 feet (10 by 15 m); an engine house, measuring 21 by 50 feet (6.4 by 15.2 m); a water house, measuring 15 by 26 feet (4.6 by 7.9 m); a woodshed, measuring 30 by 147 feet (9.1 by 44.8 m); two hand car houses, each measuring 14 by 18 feet (4.3 by 5.5 m); another hand car house, measuring 12 by 12 feet (3.7 by 3.7 m); and a rail shop. Nearby stood a covered bridge, supported by trusses of Childs' patent; this bridge was replaced by the existing double Town lattice truss railroad bridge in 1889. See Contoocook Railroad Bridge. All of the structures of the Contoocook rail center, with the exception of the depot, freight house, and bridge, had been removed by 1904. The freight house has since disappeared. The engine house and its connected water house are shown in a surviving photograph that can be dated between 1884 and 1887 by the presence of a Boston and Lowell Railroad locomotive. The locations of the engine house and wood house are shown on a Sanborn Insurance Company map of 1892.[2]

Contoocook Riverway Association

The Contoocook Riverway Association is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1999 that owns the railroad depot, train car and property. The organization was founded by an initial board of directors with a President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and additional board members.

Current members of the Board of Directors (March 2015):

Renovations

During the summer of 2002, the historic Contoocook Railroad Depot and covered railroad bridge began a trip back in time with an extensive renovation to restore them to their 1910 glory. "When you came to Contoocook, you came on the rail," said Chip Chesley, past President of the Contoocook Riverway Association, the non-profit that handled the project. "This was the village's front door and it just seemed natural that it should be restored for the public to enjoy."

Contoocook Railroad Depot after renovations completed in 2005

The Contoocook Riverway Association bought the depot from the town of Hopkinton for one silver dollar in 1999. The covered bridge, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is owned by the State of New Hampshire. The $400,000 restoration project was funded by federal grants administered through the State Department of Transportation and by community donations. The journey took approximately three years. Restoration of the depot building was first - the roof stripped and replaced with wooden shingles that resembled the roof until the 1930s. New exterior siding and paint, followed by the sandblasting and painting of the train signal, or semaphore, brought the building's look back nearly a century.

The depot's surviving interior details include two ticket windows and most of the original walls and ceilings, still covered with tongue-and-groove paneling common in the late 19th century. Over the years, many original items have been returned to the depot by the community such as the enameled blue "Contoocook" station sign, luggage cart, seating bench, and other irreplaceable items.

In 2007, a wooden Pullman Passenger Coach was donated to the Contoocook Riverway Association and placed on rails behind the depot, as if ready to pass through the bridge once again.

Current use

The depot currently serves as a museum. It is open occasionally during the summer months for the Contoocook Farmers Market, which is held throughout the summer on the depot property extending towards the Contoocook River in the park. Second floor renovations taking place in 2013 have included a meeting room, museum displays, historic document archives and an additional bathroom. The building contains an elevator indoors for handicapped access to the second floor.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
  2. ↑ US Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service , National Register of Historic Places
  3. ↑ Contoocook Riverway Association , Steve Lux Jr, President