Tearing Down the Old Railroad Station

This is a different view of the Sea View RR Station.

 My dad purchased the station from the Old Colony Railroad in 1940, and the land. His plans were to tear down the station and build a new home.

I remember the large waiting room with long settees along the walls, a clock with roman numerals, a pot-belly stove, and the control room with keyboards, head phones and record books. There was an ell on the south side with a big pump that would pump well water to a large copper-lined tank in the attic.

The tracks were removed in 1941 by a crane mounted on a flat car. The men would attach chains to a length of track. The crane lifted it, spun around, and lowered it to a waiting flat car, then hauled away when full.

Later during the war, scavengers would walk the track bed, picking up rail spikes and iron plates to be sold as scrap. Coal was also found along the track bed.

My Dad and I began tearing the inside of the station apart sometime during the war. During the next few years, the interior was gutted. Dad engineered the project and I, at 8 to 12 years old, was in charge of pulling nails, cleaning bricks, and straightening lead and copper flashing. Everything had to be saved because no new building materials were available.

When Dad was sure he was not going to be drafted, he made plans to dismantle the building during his summer vacation from the Record American Newspaper. His twin brother came to help. Bill & Herby would drop timbers to the ground by ropes, then later stack them in piles by size. I moved the smaller timbers. The attic and second floor were off in less than two weeks. The neighbors were amazed! No pictures were taken, Mom said that no film could found for her brownie box camera.

In 1946, Dad contracted Gino Rugani of Pleasant Street and Dog Lane to build the foundation and to excavate. August Schatz & crew were to build the new home from that old station. I can still hear Red Davis and Dobby Dobson cuss the hidden nails dulling their saws . . . the nails I should have removed! I'm sure there was much cussing that I never heard!

Dad found nails in Bridgewater, windows in Quincy, and roof shingles in Millis. The shingles were seconds and only lasted 50 years on that roof! We moved in October 1947. (Dad passed away in Feb. '06 at 101 years.)

This is a likeness to the crane used to remove the RR tracks. This is building the bridge at Damon's Point. 

by Ray Freden
Originally published in the Marshfield Mariner, May 7, 2008