Cornwall Bridge Railroad Station

The Cornwall Bridge Railroad Station is located at the junction of Poppleswamp Brook Road and Kent Road in Cornwall, Connecticut. The station, a Stick style wood frame structure was built by the Housatonic Railroad between 1865 and 1875 and as with the rest of the railroad was acquired by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1892. The New Haven Railroad was acquired by Penn Central Railroad in 1969, which went bankrupt by 1970. Fortunately, the station was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 26, 1972.

Penn Central auctioned the station in 1971 and the bid was won by Marion and David Williams of Amherst, Massachusetts. The Williamses hired Wheatogue Services, a local contractor, to restore the building structurally, and match the original exterior paint colors. In the process of scraping old paint, the original Cornwall Bridge sign letters on the south side of the station were uncovered from under years of paint. Unfortunately the recent owners have changed the exterior paint colors and painted over the original sign.

The Williamses also replaced the decomposed slate roof with an antique pressed metal roof commonly used during the 19th century. They researched and found the original metal presses in a warehouse in Texas and had a metal company manufacture the roof. Since then the pressed metal roof has become popular in other restoration projects ranging from homes to barns.

The Cornwall Bridge station was used as the Williams' weekend home until 1985 and was sold to a New York City film producer. It has changed ownership several times since.

The Cornwall Bridge station is mentioned in an essay 'The Lady at 142' By James Thurber in his collection of essays called 'The Thurber Carnival'.