Name/Title
1912 Freeport StationDescription
This historic depot was built in 1912 to replace the one burned in 1911. It was constructed in the style called “New York Central” and was one of the newest in the state. During its heyday, the station managed outgoing and incoming passengers and freight coming and going from New England, national and global locales. Just as visitors were beginning to visit Maine en masse for its fresh air and recreation, L.L. Bean was dramatically accelerating its shipments worldwide. Founded in 1912, by 1961, most freight had shifted to truck transport and passenger service had been discontinued, leaving only the US Mail its major client. By 1964, Freeport station was closing.
Museum founder, George McEvoy, had become friends with Freeport station's station agent, Phillip Carr and when the station was set to close, Carr informed McEvoy that the station would be put up for sale. January 2, 1964, Maine Central Railroad officials announced that McEvoy had the winning bid to purchase the station. McEvoy later noted his doubts that he was the highest bidder suspecting they favored his idea of using the station to open a museum.
The real challenge was moving the station 39.2 miles from its Freeport location to Boothbay, and over the Kennebec River in Bath on the (now dismantled) Carleton Bridge. “They said it couldn’t be done. The building was too big to move. It only made me all the more determined to do it,” McEvoy remembers.
McEvoy had a plan, and he had the right contacts. As a foundation was dug and concrete poured at the site, Torben Anderson, of Maine Truck Owner’s Association, and Jack Ballard, of Kennebec Trucking, plotted the route. According to McEvoy, Anderson’s motive involved more than money: he aimed to demonstrate to the general public that trains were obsolete, that it would take a truck to move a train station.
The key was dismantling the building, and Frank T. Greenleaf of Westport Island sawed the building into a total of nine pieces, four for the structure and five for the massive roof with seven-foot overhangs. Even the bricks from the chimney were dismantled.
Over three days in 1964, on February 3, 4, and 5, 1964, the nine pieces were individually loaded, one at a time. In a total of nine trips, three per day, the piecemeal property crawled at a snail’s pace on the backs of flatbeds up Route 1 to Brunswick, Route 24 through Brunswick, back to Route 1 through Bath and Wiscasset and finally to Route 27. State Police Troopers accompanied the entourage, stopping traffic and guiding the way. According to legend, the employees at Bath Iron Works all left their stations to come watch the spectacle of the huge pieces narrowly clearing the bridge at one time with just two inches of clearance. Once in Boothbay, the building was re-erected where it remains today.
When it opened to the public in 1965 it became Maine’s first public railway museum.Made/Created
Date made
1912Place
City
Freeport, MEState/Province
MaineCountry
United States of AmericaLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
Station, RailroadNomenclature Sub-Class
Transportation StructuresNomenclature Class
StructuresNomenclature Category
Category 01: Built Environment Objects
