Following the Salisbury Point Railroad Depot
by Ron Klodenski
Salisbury Point Railroad Depot in 1914 on Rocky Hill Road (left) and today in Amesbury’s Lower Millyard (right). (1914 photo from the Amesbury Carriage Museum Collection. Original from Beverly Historical Society.)
The little railroad depot building stands inconspicuously but proudly on Water Street in Amesbury’s Lower Millyard, showing little evidence of how much it has traveled in its 150-year life. ACM Board member and historical researcher Joyann Reynolds has explored the history of the depot and written a detailed report tracing the movements and reincarnations of this important piece of Amesbury history, beginning with its construction on Rocky Hill Road near the end of the Civil War.
A member of the Amesbury Carriage Museum’s Industrial Survey Team and Chair of the ACM Collections Committee, Joyann has applied her research skills and persistence to produce biographies about several important people in Amesbury’s history. This report, History of the Salisbury Point Railroad Depot, is one more example of her valuable efforts to discover and preserve Amesbury history.
Railroad lines and approximate station locations marked on a section of an 1894 U.S. Government topographic map. Blue line highlights north-south track connecting Boston and Portland, Maine. Red line highlights Amesbury branch (called Salisbury Branch before 1887). The map had not yet been updated to show the renaming of the Salisbury Branch and the relocation of the Amesbury-Salisbury border in 1887.
Joyann’s story starts in 1847 when the railroad first pushed the three miles into Amesbury, branching westerly from the north-south Boston-to-Portland rail line passing up the coast near Salisbury Center. The Amesbury branch started near the intersection of Gardner Street and Elm Street (Route 110) in Salisbury, going westward and passing through the site of today’s CarriageTown Marketplace – the plaza with Stop & Shop and familiar other stores. From there it continued west, crossing Rocky Hill Road and continuing down to Amesbury’s Lower Millyard. (Much of this path is now the Amesbury Riverwalk, shown prominently on Google Maps.)
The three miles between the Boston-to-Portland railroad line and Amesbury center had three railroad depots: Salisbury Center (then called East Salisbury), Salisbury Point Depot on Rocky Hill Road, and a third depot, now Crave Restaurant, at the end of the rail line in downtown Amesbury.
According to Joyann’s report, written references to the Salisbury Point Depot don’t appear until 1848, but it makes sense that the original depot would be built at the same time as the rest of the Salisbury Branch Railroad in 1847. (It was called “Salisbury Branch” because the border between Amesbury and Salisbury in 1847 was the Powow River, not the current line near today’s I-95 highway. So the entire branch was in Salisbury in those days.)
There’s little evidence to verify the exact date that a “new” Salisbury Point Depot was built to replace the 1848 building, but an 1864 newspaper article reported on a new station on Rocky Hill Road. This 1864 depot is probably the same one now on display in the Lower Millyard.
From here on Rocky Hill Road, the little building’s journeys begin.
An 1872 map shows Salisbury Point Station where today’s Amesbury Riverwalk crosses Rocky Hill Road. The depot is shown west of the road and south of the tracks, placing it near the back of the current Dunkin Donuts lot. By 1917, the depot had been moved diagonally across the tracks to the east side of Rocky Hill Road and north of the railroad tracks. An old photograph in Joyann’s report confirms this.
Those were busy times at the depot. Passengers, mail and freight passed daily from the depot up and down Rocky Hill Road to the residents and businesses along the river. But eventually rail traffic declined with the times and the rise of automobile popularity. So the depot building was taken out of service in 1936.
The Salisbury Point Depot building on Prospect Street in 1980, just before its rescue by local historian Richard Nichols.
Shortly thereafter, the depot building was purchased and moved to Prospect Street, nearer downtown Amesbury. There it became a shelter – maybe for chickens – on Frederick Sargent’s poultry farm. The little building remained on the farm until 1980, when local historian Richard Nichols discovered and rescued it from ignominy, intending to save this little piece of Amesbury’s transportation history for the public to appreciate and enjoy.
Nichols was able to find space for the historic building on the property of Bartlett Museum on Main Street. The depot was moved to the museum grounds in four separate pieces, and here a team of volunteers worked for three years to reassemble and restore it. Their efforts culminated in a dedication ceremony in 1983.
Salisbury Point Depot as it was being moved in 2004 from the Bartlett Museum on Main Street to near its current location in the Lower Millyard.
More changes were ahead, however. Space at the Bartlett Museum was tight, and after 20 years on Main Street the depot needed a new home. Peter Bryant, president of the Salisbury Point Rail Road Historical Society, was able to secure space on Water Street in 2004. It was moved there in 2005 – this time in one piece – and remained in a temporary spot until restoration work on the Lower Millyard could be completed. It was finally placed on its current foundation in 2014, marking the end (or beginning) of the Amesbury Riverwalk.
By all indications, it will remain there for some time to come.
Read Joyann’s detailed report, History of the Salisbury Point Railroad Depot, by clicking here.
For more about the history of the railroad in Amesbury (with another depot relocation story), also see these two history news articles published in 2018: