Maplewood Train Station

02/17/2024

**Saturday Morning Update**

We're thrilled to share that we've been awarded a $2,500 grant from the CDFA! This funding will support hiring a grant writing consultant to assist with our CDFA tax credit application, due in March. It's an exciting step forward for us. We have already reached out to a few consultants from the CDFA's list. Stay tuned for more updates as they come.

09/11/2023

Good morning -

As a quick Monday morning update, I just got word that we received a small grant to help pay for a consultant to write the USDA Facilities Grant. She'll get started on the application when it opens up again in January. Using a grant writer, along with all the support from Sen Shaheen's office, will help to improve our chances of approval even more!

One step at a time!

04/15/2023

Becky DiChristopher, aka the "Junk Lady" reached out to us a couple weeks ago. Her business is to clean out houses either through moving or estate sales, or just to help people clean out their stuff. Her goal is to minimize what actually goes to the dump and therefore she donates a lot of the items, sells some of it, and looks to recycle what's left.
She came across the photograph of the Station from almost 20 years ago; before it starting leaning and falling into further disrepair.
It will be great to include in the Station's museum/collection once it's rebuilt!

04/03/2023

10/13/2022

The Maplewood Station was featured on a Burlington news show last night!

Community members in Bethlehem, New Hampshire, are working to bring a historic train station back to life.

09/30/2022

The architect is officially done with his plans for the station! We will receive the digital and hard copies soon.

This is a BIG milestone complete. Thank you all for your patience with the update delays. We are one step closer to a beautiful station back in Bethlehem.

04/05/2022

Shout out to Peggy Barrasso for finding this timepiece and sending it our way!

03/16/2022

Maplewood Train Station Restoration - Update

Fundraising: Fundraising for Phase 1 was amazing thanks to the many, many generous people from across the country and especially locally. It allowed us to pay for equipment for the architects to use to help measure the Station, as well as the crew that worked to take the structure down and move it to storage. Some of that work, and the storage is also being generously donated!

Most of the remaining funds will be used to pay the architects, once their renderings are complete.

Phase 1: The first phase of the project has progressed well. Initially we had supports placed on the building to slow further lean and deterioration until full architectural measurements could be taken and the crew could begin disassembling the building. In the spring of 2021 the architects finished their measurements.

In the fall of 2021 the crews were onsite and began taking the building apart to preserve as much as possible for the future rebuild. As the supports that were put in place during the spring were removed, the building quickly leaned heavily. The crew worked tirelessly to remove and preserve as much as possible before the remaining structure finally, after almost 100 years of being abandoned, collapsed. The crew continued to save as much as possible and shipped it off to storage, where it now stays preserved.

Next steps of phase 1 include receiving the architects renderings, which we are told will be ready mid-spring 2022. Once we receive those, we can work with the builder to price out construction.

At the same time, we've been working with foundations, potential donors, and have started looking for grants to help with the rebuild, and we continue to look for new sites to house the Station. There are several that we've identified that are close to the downtown area and we continue to work through which will be best.

Phase 2: Once plans are received from the Architect, and funding secured, we look forward to the rebuild which we hope will take place in 2023-2024, funding dependent.

02/10/2022

We need your help! Tell us bellow 👇Where do you think the station should go!?

12/02/2021

"There is conflicting evidence regarding how the locomotives were employed on the Bethlehem Division to tackle the steep grade of the line immediately below Maplewood. Some sources report that locomotives were coupled to the rear of the train and pushed the passenger cars uphill from Bethlehem Junction onto the level shelf below Bethlehem Street. Other evidence, however, indicates that at times the practice of double heading was used in which two locomotives (a leading “pilot” engine and a trailing “train” engine each with their own crew) were used to draw the train. Likely both methods were employed depending upon circumstances such as the number of cars to be hauled. Regardless of which method was used there were moments during the operation of the line when riders were skeptical that the grade could be conquered. During Bethlehem’s heavily-attended coaching parade in August 1896, “the first train from the junction over the hilly spur of track was drawn by two powerful engines, and even then it came near being stuck in the steep grade below Maplewood station.”35
The practice of double heading was costly and may have contributed to passenger dissatisfaction with what were considered the Profile & Franconia Notch’s exorbitant rates. Many took issue with the expense of travel over the line including one correspondent of the Boston Globe who reported: “A day or two ago [in July 1883], in speaking with the ticket agent [at Maplewood], I learned that the business of the narrow gauge railroad which runs to Bethlehem was vastly in excess of the corresponding time last year. I have also learned one or two other interesting facts about the White Mountain railroads. For example, the regular tariff [fare] on the principal lines is about five cents per mile. From Bethlehem Junction to Maplewood is not far from a mile and a half; the fare is thirty-five cents, over twenty cents per mile. Fancy paying sixty cents from Boston to Cambridge."-A History of Maplewood Station Bethlehem, New Hampshire
Michael J. Maddigan

11/23/2021

Last month when we were working to put the station away for the winter, we found an interesting and shocking amount of something being stored in the station for safe keeping... We believe a family of furry creatures marked the station as its own. What do you think we found?