Frenchville Railroad Station and Water Tank, Frenchville Maine

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Date added: January 22, 2025
Station from northeast (1994)

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Erected in 1910 when the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was extending its line eastward from Van Buren, the Frenchville Railroad Station and Water Tank is one of only a handful that survive along this important northern Maine railroad, whereas the water tank is the most intact of only two such structures that remain in the entire state.

The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was chartered in 1891 with the purpose of bringing rail service to Maine's vast northernmost county. Initially, the company leased two small railroads - the Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad and the Bangor and Katahdin Iron Works line - which served, respectively, the slate quarrying areas around Brownville and Monson, as well as the iron manufactory at Katahdin Iron Works northwest of Brownville. From this base, the railroad extended its line northward completing the system in the second decade of the twentieth century. Its presence hastened the county's rapid development into the Nation's leading producer of potatoes, and it fostered the rise of a large forest products industry.

Located about midway between Madawaska to the east and Fort Kent to the west (where the Bangor and Aroostook erected a station in 1902 at the terminus of its line), Frenchville was among the last communities to be connected to the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad. Incorporated on February 23rd, 1869, under the name Dickeyville, Frenchville (which name it assumed in 1871) was settled initially by French Acadians. Located in the St. John River Valley, the local economy was based on agriculture and logging. As reported by George J. Varney in his 1881 Gazetteer of the State of Maine, the principal agricultural crops were buckwheat, oats, peas, wheat, and potatoes. In addition, there were several saw mills, two grist mills, a cloth dressing factory, and a starch factory. By 1910, the population had risen to 1,414 persons, and that year's edition of the Maine Register noted the existence of both the cloth dressing and starch factories. An historic photograph of the Frenchville station indicates, however, that the shipment of potatoes was probably the railroad's prime freight in the community as this image shows a long row of trackside potato warehouses standing to the west.

Architecturally, the Frenchville Railroad Station appears to have been one of the most modest stations erected along the entire railroad. The most common Bangor and Aroostook station featured a broad gable on hip roof whose eaves extended well beyond the limits of the frame walls. This design is exemplified by the surviving stations at Fort Kent and in modified form at Oakfield. Another design, for which no examples survive, employed a two-story gabled form with a pent roof around four sides above the first story. The Frenchville station, by contrast, was smaller and less stylish, although its decorative metal wall and ceiling interior finish gave it some measure of ornamentation.

Like the station, the water tank is of utilitarian design, but it is a typical example of this once ubiquitous type of structure. Water tanks were an essential aspect of railroads when steam engines were used for motive power. However, they became obsolete when diesel engines were fully introduced, and their wholesale removal predated even that of the stations themselves. In fact, the example in Frenchville is the most intact water tank in the entire state. Only one other is known to exist (in Cherryfield), but it is only partially intact and is highly threatened. Furthermore, the station once associated with it has been moved some distance away.

In 1970 the Frenchville Railroad Station was closed and was subsequently sold to a private owner. The water tank had been acquired by the Town of Frenchville about 1958 and after its function was no longer needed by the railroad. It served as a water reservoir for the fire department until 1981, and its subsequent preservation was assumed by a group of interested residents in 1985. At present it is owned by the Frenchville Historical Society. This group moved a former caboose to the site in 1988.

Site Description

The Frenchville Railroad Station and Water Tank consists of a one-story wooden framed passenger station and an elevated wooden water tank standing some eighty feet away. Between them is a former Bangor and Aroostook (B & A) Railroad caboose which permanently rests on a section of track. All three properties are located on a narrow strip of ground between an active spur of the B & A and US Route 1.

The station is a modest gable-roofed building with a four-bay front (north) facade. This elevation is comprised of a narrow projecting center bay that is an extension of the agent's office. It has a pair of two-over-two windows on the front and narrow one-over-ones on each side. Flanking it to the east is a wide, two-leaf, six-panel door opening into the freight room. To the west is a two-over-two window and a door opening into the passenger waiting room. There is another pair of wide doors on the west gable end, two windows on the south elevation (one each in the waiting room and office), and a third in the east end. The broad overhanging roof is covered with asbestos shingles laid in a diamond pattern, and a single brick flue punctuates the ridge. The station is sheathed in green painted weatherboards.

In plan, the station is divided into three rooms of unequal size, the agent's being the central one and the smallest. Each room has narrow tongue-and-groove wainscot and decorative metal walls and ceilings. A door opens into the agent's office from the waiting room where there is also a small ticket window. The brick flue projects out into the freight room.

The wood shingled water tank is approximately forty feet in height and about twenty feet in diameter. It stands on an octagonal wooden base that is sheathed in weatherboards, and is covered by a polygonal roof. Fifteen steel rods spread at broader intervals the higher their location encircle the tank and structurally reinforce it. Access to the bottom of the tank (which is made of redwood) is gained through a door on the northwest side of the base. There is a window opening on the northeast face of the base. A ladder to the roof scuttle and the external gauge measuring the depth of the water in feet are located on the tank's east side. The heavy timber framing system that supports the tank and the internal pumping system are intact. The tank rests on a concrete pad.

The Frenchville Historical Society Caboose was originally built by the Pullman Company in December of 1943 as a "Troop Sleeper" Car (#7605). On October 21st, 1949, it was obtained by the B & A Railroad for $7,522 and refitted at the Derby Shop as a caboose, with the new car number C-87. The car was supplied with Westinghouse Air Brakes. Overall weight is approximately 71,000 pounds. Car dimensions include: inside width 9 feet 1½ inches, outside width 11 feet 1; inches, inside height of 7 feet ¼ inch, outside extreme height of 15 feet 5 inches, inside length of 39 feet 3 inches, and a maximum outside length of 51 feet 8½ inches. The cabin oil heater currently in the car was installed June 9th, 1960; there is no information on earlier heating. The electric lights and gas refrigerator were added March 19th, 1965 (the refrigerator has been removed by the Historical Society, as has one of the original four metal beds). As late as February, 1981, the caboose was still in service. It was donated to the historical society and moved to this site in 1988.

Frenchville Railroad Station and Water Tank, Frenchville Maine View from east (1994)
View from east (1994)

Frenchville Railroad Station and Water Tank, Frenchville Maine Station from northeast (1994)
Station from northeast (1994)

Frenchville Railroad Station and Water Tank, Frenchville Maine Water tank from west (1994)
Water tank from west (1994)