North Easton station is a former railroad station designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. It is located just off Oliver Street in North Easton, Massachusetts, and currently houses the Easton Historical Society. The station was built in 1881 and served commuter trains until 1958. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1972 as Old Colony Railroad Station. In 1987, it also became part of the H. H. Richardson Historic District of North Easton, a

National Historic Landmark District A National Historic Landmark District (NHLD) is a geographical area that has received recognition from the United States Government that the buildings, landscapes, cultural features and archaeological resources within it are of the highest signific ...

. Restoration of passenger rail services to the site have been proposed as part of Phase 2 of the South Coast Rail project.

History

The Easton Branch Railroad opened from Stoughton to North Easton on May 16, 1855. Originally part of the

Boston and Providence Railroad The Boston and Providence Railroad was a railroad company in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which connected its namesake cities. It opened in two sections in 1834 and 1835 - one of the Rail transportation in the United States, fir ...

, it became part of the Dighton and Somerset Railroad in 1866. A new station was commissioned in 1881 by Frederick Lothrop Ames, director of the Old Colony Railroad, during the same year that Richardson designed the Ames Gate Lodge for his nearby estate.

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...

landscaped its grounds. It is a relatively small station, a single story in height with Richardson's characteristic heavy masonry and outsized roof. Its long axis runs north-south with the tracks, now disused, along its west side. The building is laid out symmetrically within, with a large passenger room at each end (one for women, the other for men). The station's facade is constructed of rough-faced, random

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

of gray granite with a brownstone belt course and trim. Two large, semicircular arches punctuate each of the long facades, inset with windows and doorways, and ornamented with carvings of a beast's snarling head; a further semicircular arch projects to form the east facade's porte-cochere. Eaves project deeply over all sides, supported by plain wooden

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

Commuter rail service past Stoughton was cut on September 5, 1958. In 1969, the Ames family purchased the property from the Penn Central Railroad and gave it to the historical society. It was added to the

in 1972. In 1987, it also became part of the H. H. Richardson Historic District of North Easton, a

. A new

MBTA Commuter Rail The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA's) transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over of track on 12 lines to 142 stations. It ...

station, Easton Village, was proposed to be built at the site as part of full-build (Phase 2) plans for the South Coast Rail project. Preliminary designs from 2014 include a high-level platform across the track from the historic building.

References

External links

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Easton Historical Society
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Massachusetts Henry Hobson Richardson buildings Railway stations in the United States opened in 1855 Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic American Buildings Survey in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Bristol County, Massachusetts Former Old Colony Railroad stations Easton, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Bristol County, Massachusetts Former railway stations in Massachusetts Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts 1855 establishments in Massachusetts MBTA Commuter Rail stations in Bristol County, Massachusetts Railway stations scheduled to open in 2030 Proposed MBTA Commuter Rail stations Railway stations in the United States closed in 1958

History

See also

References

External links