Union station after 1940 (Falls Ave located over the Yantic River near new transportation center). NORWICH/W4 [CVT, 1939] Richard Fleischer recently offered the observation that this depot might not have been new in 1939, but rather a remnant of the preceding union station. He based this theory on the stone window sills and lintels, the protruding corbels and the unpainted areas above each of them. Though photos of the old union station never reveal such details, the ICC field notes seems to supply the answer. The corbels, seen at our red arrow in the photo at upper left and in the ICC snippet at middle, supported the braces for the roof overhang. The photo must be just after the rump depot was born. The 1940 shot at right seems to show it now freshly painted and sporting a signboard not seen in the first photo. The field notes at lower left show the first-floor footprint and our red arrow points to the west wing that was not demolished in 1939. The clincher in following up this unusual transformation came in a trip to the Otis Library, which produced the the article cited in part here: Cutting Down Size of Central Vermont Railway Station. Within a short time the old Central Vermont railway passenger station, off Falls avenue, will be only a fraction of its original size. Wrecking operations on this brick building are now going on which will eliminate the big waiting room section and leave only the westerly end of the building for railroad use. The rest of the building will be leveled to the ground. In the section that will be left, there will be a sizable waiting room, large enough to accommodate the present day passenger traffic, a telegraph room and ticket office, room for storage and records, and a toilet room. As this end of the building is shut off from the easterly end by a brick wall, it can be readily adapted to the plans. The roof will be lowered to fit in with the plans and the heating apparatus now in this part of the building will be retained. As there are only two passenger trains daily on the road now, one north in the morning and the other south at night, this diminished space will be ample for the present day traffic on the road… It was remarked Tuesday that the station was built at a cost of about $75,000 but the railroad had to give it away in order to get it torn down. The view in the photo at upper left looks south with the Main St. overpass in the distance. The 1940 shot looks east and behind this diminshed depot, freight cars can be seen taking up the space where the rest of the old union station once stood. CVT passenger service was discontinued altogether in 1947 and this station reportedly came down between 1972 and 1976.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 20:21:18 +0000
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