Potter Place Railroad Station facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Potter Place Railroad Station
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 Location in New Hampshire
Location in the United States
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| Location | Depot St., Andover, New Hampshire |
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| Area | 0.2 acres (0.081 ha) |
| Built | 1874 |
| Architect | Cheney, John B. |
| Architectural style | Stick/Eastlake |
| NRHP reference No. | 89000189 |
| Added to NRHP | March 16, 1989 |
The Potter Place Railroad Station is a special old train station located on Depot Street in Andover, New Hampshire. It was built a long time ago, in 1874. It is one of the best-kept train stations from the 1800s in Merrimack County. Today, it is not a working train station anymore. Instead, it is a fun museum run by the Andover Historical Society. This station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. This happened because of its history and how well it has been preserved.
Contents
About the Old Train Station
The Potter Place Railroad Station sits in a quiet, almost rural area. It is right next to Depot Street. It is also next to what used to be the train tracks of the Boston and Maine Railroad. These old tracks are now a popular walking and biking path. It is called the Northern Rail Trail. Depot Street itself is an old road. It was once the main east-west road through Andover. Now, U.S. Route 4 bypasses it.
The station building is made of wood. It has one story and a sloped roof called a hip roof. The roof has long parts that stick out. These are held up by large, fancy brackets. The brackets have cool carvings. The part of the roof facing the street has two small, gabled windows. The walls of the station are made of vertical wooden boards. They have special decorations from the Stick style of architecture. These decorations are mostly on the upper parts of the building. On the side facing the old tracks, there is a part that sticks out. This part holds the controls for a working semaphore signal. A semaphore signal is like an old-fashioned traffic light for trains. It uses movable arms to tell train engineers what to do.
History of the Station
The Northern Railroad was a train line. It ran between Concord, New Hampshire, and White River Junction, Vermont. It started operating in 1847. This station was built in 1874 to serve that train line. When it was added to the National Register in 1989, it was one of only fourteen train stations left in Merrimack County. Most of the other stations had been changed a lot over time.
This station was sold by the railroad in 1961. In the 1970s, it was carefully fixed up and made to look new again. The Andover Historical Society took over the station in 1983. They turned it into the museum you can visit today.
Andover Historical Society Museum
The Potter Place Railroad Station is the main museum building for the Andover Historical Society. When you visit, you can see what a station master's office looked like. This is how it would have been in the early to mid-1900s. A station master was the person in charge of the train station. Next to the station, there is also an old caboose from the early 1900s. A caboose is the last car on a freight train.
The Andover Historical Society has other museum buildings too. These include:
- An old railroad freight house from the early 1900s. It shows farm machines and tools used to cut ice.
- A restored village store from around the year 1900.
- An early 1900s post office.
- The Tucker Mountain Schoolhouse.
You can visit these museum buildings on summer weekends.
The home and grave of a famous magician named Richard Potter and his wife are also nearby. They are located across the old railroad tracks from the station.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Merrimack County, New Hampshire
- New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 54: Potter Place
