Built 190 NRHP Reference # 89000693 Added to NRHP 6 July 1989 | MPS Wakefield MRA Opened 1900 | |
 | ||
Location 57 Water Street
Wakefield, Massachusetts Architectural styles Queen Anne style architecture, American Queen Anne style Similar Flanley's Block, Elizabeth Boit House, E Boardman House, Nathaniel Cowdry House, HM Warren School | ||
The Center Depot is a historic railway station at 57 Water Street (MA 129) in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Built in the early 1870s, it is a surviving element of the railroad infrastructure that enabled Wakefield's growth as an industrial center in the late 19th century. The depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. As of 2008, the former depot serves as a restaurant.
Description and history
The Wakefield Center Depot is located on the south side of Water Street, east of Main Street, and on the west side of a now-abandoned railroad right of way. It is a single-story wood frame structure, rectangular in plan, with a hip roof that has deep eaves supported by large knee braces, which are set in paneled pilasters on the walls. A polygonal bay projects on the track-facing facade, that would have been used by a telegraph operator or ticket agent.
The railroad was built through Wakefield around 1850, and had immediate positive economic consequences. One line was built north to Salem, and it is along this line that a station at this site was probably established around that time. A second line was built toward Haverhill, and is now used for the Haverhill Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail. The Salem line was used by two of Wakefield's major manufacturers, the Wakefield Rattan Company, and the L. B. Evans Shoe Company. The present station first appears on city maps in 1874, suggesting a construction date between then and 1870.