Maplewood Station- Bethlehem, NH preservation effort

Noticed what appeared to be braces against the side of the station over the weekend. Today this was posted by one of the selectmen to the town News page:

https://www.maplewoodtrainstation.org/

It appears they intend to capture every detail of the building as is, dismantle it, and relocate it somewhere in town on another property. I believe the current landowner is the developer who owns the nearby golf course.

I'm not sure what they'll be able to keep, as it is severely rotted, and was leaning quite a bit prior to the braces being put up.

The effort to save it should have happened years ago, I think it is too little too late now. Some wood and brick might be salvageable for incorporation into a new building if they want to build a replica.

I'm thinking that is the idea, but there isn't much left in town for developable lots visible to the public eye to drop it in. What is available are generally super expensive commercial lots.

https://www.unionleader.com/news/histor ... 803b0.html

Brief, fair use quote:

Phase I of the project, said Selectman Bruce Caplain on Wednesday, started with the installation of wooden buttresses on the west side of the depot, which is a short distance off Maplewood Hill Road, abutting the Maplewood Golf Club & Inn.

He said that soon an architect will visually record every facet of the building and come up with a plan for a contractor to “take it apart,” ideally by the fall, and in Phase II, put it back together near the center of town.

Phase I is expected to cost $12,000, Caplain said, and already two people have said they would match the first $7,500 raised by the nonprofit MaplewoodTrainStation.org.

Mr. Caplain lives in the other former depot in town, and they certainly have the right folks behind this project.

Given the propensity of New Englanders to prop up, load up, haul off, and relocate structures I’m surprised it has taken nearly a century to do so.

Looks like it's listing heavily to starboard, much worse than the last time I saw it. The first time I visited the station, the staircase to the 2nd floor was intact and you could go up there. The next time I was there the staircase had rotted and collapsed. I'm glad they're trying to salvage it but as others have pointed out it should have been restored decades ago.

One of my favorite shots from the Maplewood depot, taken in front of the platform which disappeared decades ago.

Whoever that chauffeur is waiting for must be rather wealthy judging by how expensive the automobile he's driving looks. The car must be British too as the driver is sitting on the right side.

Note the chains on the rear tires, and mud on the front tires. I read that early cars (perhaps before 1900~1910???) had the steering wheel on the right as you were more worried about the edge of the road than colliding with another car.

Most cars built before 1910 were right-side drivers. This was a holdover from most wagon-riding at the time, so the driver could keep a close eye on road-side ditches, obstructions, etc.

The Model T was a left-side driver, and became so popular in later years that others would end up following suit.

Interesting. Didn't know cars in the US started out as right-side drivers. Made sense to shift to the left side as most drivers were right handed and would shift with their right hand.

Wikipedia has a fairly extensive entry on lefthand traffic v. righthand traffic. Of interest was the explanation that horse-powered America teamsters -- teamdriver, where you been? -- originally had no benches in their wagons and sat on the lefthand horse with whips in their right hands, 90% of the populace not being lefthanded. The lefthand position gave a the teamsters a better view when meeting oncoming traffic. England -- being England -- did things its way.

Story is that the Romans drove left-side of the road. Napoleon & his crew, to shake things up drove on the right side of the road & made everybody else in Europe switch, but never went to England so the English Empire never switched. Most railroad lines around here are right-handed.

Plans have been made for the station to be dismantled by a local contractor in October/November. At that time, we'll figure out what can be salvaged.

Drove by after work today and observed that the station is now a small pile of rubble next to a loaded dumpster positioned on the former RoW.

Edit: a post later this evening indicates that they salvaged what they could before the remains expectedly collapsed.