Old Colony Railroad Station

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North Easton Railroad Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Old Colony Railroad Station
Location:	Off Oliver St. North Easton, Massachusetts
Added to NRHP:	April 11, 1972
NRHP Reference#:	72000125

The Old Colony Railroad Station, also known as the North Easton Railroad Station, is a railroad station designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. It is located just off Oliver Street, North Easton, Massachusetts, and currently houses the Easton Historical Society.

The 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 landscaped its grounds. In 1969, the Ames family purchased the property from the New York Central Railroad and gave it to the historical society.

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 of gray granite with a red granite 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.

East facade

West facade

Detail

[edit] References

• Historic American Building Survey (Library of Congress)

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