Contoocook Railroad Depot
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Contoocook Railroad Depot
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| Location | 896 Main Street, Contoocook, NH 03229 PO Box 789 Off NH 103 and NH 127 Hopkinton, New Hampshire (village of Contoocook) |
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| Coordinates | 43°13′21″N 71°42′47″W / 43.22250°N 71.71306°WCoordinates: 43°13′21″N 71°42′47″W / 43.22250°N 71.71306°W |
| Built | 1849-50, renovated 1999–2013 |
| Architectural style | Mid-Nineteenth Century Two Story Wooden Frame |
| Website | www.contoocookdepot.org |
| NRHP reference # | 06000131 |
| Added to NRHP | March 16, 2006 |
The Contoocook Railroad Depot is located in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, United States, in the village of Contoocook. The depot was completed in 1849 as one of the first substantial railroad passenger stations west of Concord on the Concord and Claremont Railroad. The building is one of the best preserved of a small number of gable-roofed railroad stations surviving from the first decade of rail development in New Hampshire. The station exemplifies the pioneering period of rail development in the state.
It is one of the earliest and least altered depots of the 1850 period in New Hampshire. Displaying the Greek Revival style, with modifications that proclaim its identity as a new building type, the depot is an important artifact in the history and evolution of railroad architecture in New Hampshire.
Because the Concord and Claremont Railroad remained a small and under-capitalized short line, with minimal investment, the Contoocook Depot has survived as one of a very small group of comparable structures. Other comparable depots on the Concord and Claremont line, and on its sister Contoocook Valley Railroad, have disappeared. Very similar stations once stood at West Concord and Bradford, but no longer exist. The Contoocook Valley Railroad, built at the same time as the Concord and Claremont by the same builder, Joseph Barnard (and joining the latter just west of the Contoocook Depot), once had nearly identical depots. The destroyed station at Hillsborough Bridge, the original terminus of the Contoocook Valley Railroad, was a virtual twin to the Contoocook Depot. Like the Contoocook and Warner buildings, it measured twenty-four by fifty feet.
Throughout the period from 1849 to 1960, the Contoocook Depot was the commercial hub of Contoocook Village. The building not only served as the point of arrival and departure for travelers to and from the village, but also offered other forms of communication. The railway mail was delivered here, and for some years the depot served as the Contoocook Post Office. The depot was connected to the remainder of the consolidated Boston and Maine system by the railway telegraph, and also served the public as the local public telegraph office from 1866. The depot was connected to the Western Union system during the early twentieth century. When the first telephone connections were installed in Contoocook Village in 1884, one of two telephone offices was at the depot, with Amos H. Currier as agent.
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