West Concord Depot

WEST CONCORD
Location	Commonwealth Avenue & Main Street West Concord, MA 01742
Owned by	Depot: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Parking: Town of Concord
Line(s)
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Construction
Parking	146 spaces, $4.00 fee, 3 accessible spaces
Bicycle facilities	10 spaces
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Fare zone	5
History
Opened	1894
Previous names	Union Station Concord Junction
Traffic
Passengers (2009)	518 weekday avg.  0.4%
Services
Preceding station   MBTA   Following station South Acton toward Fitchburg Fitchburg Line Concord toward North Station
Union Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
File:Wconcord5.jpg
Location	20 Commonwealth Avenue West Concord, Massachusetts
Coordinates
Area	less than one acre
Built	1894
Architectural style	Queen Anne style
NRHP Reference #	89000143
Added to NRHP	March 2, 1989

West Concord Depot is a rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail system in West Concord, Massachusetts. The depot, which opened in 1894, is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Location

West Concord Depot is located at 20 Commonwealth Avenue near the intersection of Main Street. Service to the station is provided by the Fitchburg Line from Boston to Fitchburg, Massachusetts both inbound and outbound.

History

The depot opened in 1894 as Union Station at the junction of the Fitchburg Railroad and Old Colony Railroad, in a section of Concord that was initially called Concord Junction. Eventually, the name of the station stop, and the section of town, was renamed West Concord. Both railroads were eventually merged into other railroad companies to create larger networks. The Fitchburg Railroad became part of the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1900 while the Old Colony Railroad was absorbed into the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Regular passenger service on the New Haven Railroad portion of the line ceased in 1930s.

The depot is now owned by the MBTA, which purchased the passenger operations of the Boston & Maine Railroad in 1976. The building houses an MBTA office, a restaurant, and a waiting room for morning rail passengers.

West Concord Depot is a Queen Anne Style building which was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. As of 2007, local residents and businesses along with the Town of Concord and the MBTA were working to restore the station exterior after years of decay. The original railroad diamond is located in the bricks on the former right-of-way of the New Haven Railroad's Lowell Secondary Line between Framingham and Lowell, Massachusetts. This right-of-way is scheduled to become the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.

The building has housed a restaurant since the mid-1970s (or earlier). Currently, the building holds the Club Car Cafe restaurant.

Nearby destinations

• Emerson Hospital
• MCI-Concord

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Concord, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Massachusetts

References

• MBTA > Commuter Rail > West Concord. MBTA. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.

External links

Media related to West Concord Depot at Wikimedia Commons

• MBTA - West Concord
• Concord Junction Marker. Photo by Lisa McCauley January 7, 2007 at The NERAIL North American Railroad Photo Archive.
• Station from Commonwealth Avenue from Google Maps Street View
• Station House from Google Maps Street View