History
The depot opened in 1894 as Union Station at the junction of the Fitchburg Railroad and Old Colony Railroad, in a section of Concord that was initially called Concord Junction. Eventually, the name of the station stop, and the section of town, was renamed West Concord. Both railroads were eventually merged into other railroad companies to create larger networks. The Fitchburg Railroad became part of the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1900 while the Old Colony Railroad was absorbed into the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Regular passenger service on the New Haven Railroad portion of the line ceased in 1930s.
The depot is now owned by the MBTA, which purchased the passenger operations of the Boston & Maine Railroad in 1976. The building houses an MBTA office, a restaurant, and a waiting room for morning rail passengers.
West Concord Depot is a Queen Anne Style building which was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. As of 2007, local residents and businesses along with the Town of Concord and the MBTA were working to restore the station exterior after years of decay. The original railroad diamond is located in the bricks on the former right-of-way of the New Haven Railroad's Lowell Secondary Line between Framingham and Lowell, Massachusetts. This right-of-way is scheduled to become the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.
Currently, the building holds the Club Car Cafe restaurant.
Read more about this topic: West Concord Depot
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”
—Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)