Gardiner Railroad Station, Gardiner Maine

The Gardiner Railroad Station of 1911, is an extremely well preserved building which, through adaptive reuse as a store, seems unlikely to suffer the fate of so many of its kind. The rugged brick and granite structure is unique in design as far as Maine is concerned and is one of the few smaller stations of masonry construction.
Railroad service was inaugurated in Gardiner on January 1st, 1852 and the original station remained until replaced by the present one which was built just to the north of it. The station was sold by the Maine Central Railroad shortly after passenger service ended in the late 1950s. It has seen several commercial uses and is now an auto parts store.
George Burnham was a prominent Portland architect and designer of many notable buildings including the Cumberland County Court House in Portland.
This distinctive structure is a local landmark visible both from the town and from the Kennebec River on whose bank it rests.
Building Description
The Gardiner Railroad Station, constructed in 1911, is a distinctive and substantial structure in a Romanesque derivative style.
The one-story building is of brick and granite construction, with one internal brick chimney, hipped roof with wide bracketed overhang, quoins, and granite foundation. Fenestration is multi-paned and fully framed in granite.
The facade, which faces west, features a double stairway leading to a central main entrance. On each side of this doorway are two windows; to the left and right of these the building projects, each projection being two bays wide. Above the central five bays are three dormers with low-arched windows; the central dormer is larger than the other two. On the facade and ends of the building, the first story is well above street level, exposing the basement's rough-cut granite walls. Above this level, the granite is smooth-cut up to the level of the window sills.

View looking southwest (1982)

View looking southeast (1982)
