National Register Listing

Laconia Passenger Station

a.k.a. Laconia Railroad Station;Boston & Maine Railroad Station

Veterans Sq., Laconia, NH

The Laconia Railroad Station is significant not only as a fine example of late Romanesque Revival Architecture, but also for its role in transportation, commerce, and industry in Laconia and the Lakes Region. Visually, it is a pivotal element of downtown Laconia and is considered a local landmark.

The station is attributed to New York City Architect Bradford L. Gilbert and exemplifies the Romanesque Revival idiom developed and popularized by H.H. Richardson in the 1880s and 90s. The Richardsonian Romanesque style, as it is often called, is characterized by being a masonry style of large proportions most frequently employed in institutional or governmental buildings. The Laconia Railroad Station is certainly consistent with the style in these respects and also in its use of light-colored rock-faced ashlar stone wall surfaces embellished with darker masonry window and door surrounds and sill and lintel courses. In addition, the moderately-pitched slate roofs on the various sections of the structure reinforce its heavy, horizontal massing. Its use of round-headed openings and sweeping "eyebrow" pent eave on the porte-cochere are additional characteristics of the Richardsonian Romanesque.

The structure has further architectural significance as a surviving example of a late nineteenth-century railroad passenger station in New Hampshire. Relatively few of the state's stations survive and among those which do, Laconia's is of relatively large scale and high-style design and detailing. Its plan is very characteristic of passenger stations of the period with a central waiting room section flanked by wings built to house the baggage room and offices, lounges, and facilities. It also retains much of the covered walkway along the tracks which provided shelter from rain and snow.

Built for $30,000 in 1892 to serve users of the old Boston, Concord, and Montreal Railroad (which was acquired by the Boston and Maine Railroad three years later), the imposing depot became a prominent center city landmark. It continues to be a striking landmark today, due to its grand architectural style and commanding location.

The massive station was built largely because of the substantial efforts of Charles A. Busiel, a Laconian who served as a managing director of the railroad and who was intent on making various improvements and expansions of the rail system in order to serve travelers and shippers throughout the Lakes Region in a better, more comprehensive way. (Busiel also served, during his busy and productive career, as a mayor of Laconia and as Governor of New Hampshire.)

Improvements made to the rail system serving Laconia had much to do with the steady attraction of industrial and commercial establishments to the area, and these improvements also supported the increasing development and popularity of the Lakes Region as a prime resort and vacation area.

"Credit for the substantial and beautiful depot largely belongs to Hon. Charles A. Buseil ... (and) it was through his efforts and local pride that Laconia was granted such an expensive and magnificent passenger station ..." The imposing building served Laconia well, particularly in the sense that it provided a convenient and highly visible transportation facility at the center of Laconia and at a time when railroad passenger and freight traffic was of great importance. It also was thought to be important to the community, apparently, that a significant structure be added to the local townscape--one that was entirely in vogue.

Architecturally, the railroad station structure provided Laconia with a poignant example of a romanticistic style that at the time was very popular and was being used by United States architects as part of a widespread late 19th Century fashion in architecture which had been greatly refined by such famous architects as H.H. Richardson, who was at the height of his revivalist career some ten years before the Laconia station was undertaken as a project in the late Romanesque style.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1982.