Gilead Railroad Station, Former

The (Former) Gilead Railroad Station is significant as the oldest extant train station of Maine's Grand Trunk Rail line. Furthermore, it is the oldest known station in the State of Maine. Built in 1851 during the construction of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad, it features the simple design and construction characteristic of these early stations. Originally situated beside the tracks in the village of Gilead, it was moved in 1991 to a site in Auburn and rehabilitated. It is eligible for nomination to the National Register under criterion C for its architectural significance, as well as criteria consideration B because it has been moved.
Though the first developments in railroading in the U. S. took place during the 1820s, it was several years before the idea took hold in Maine. The introduction of charters for railroads out of Boston created the initial pressure, and in 1833 the first railroad charter in Maine was introduced for the Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad and Canal Company. Opening in 1836, it was the first steam railroad in the State. The first major railroad line in Maine, the Portland, Saco, and Portsmouth, was chartered in 1837. connected with the Eastern Railroad at the state line in 1842, opening Portland to rail service from Boston.

During this time, various schemes were brewing over how to take advantage of Canada's inadequate number of seaports. Many envisioned Maine serving as a key center for shipping Canadian commerce, especially during the winter. An early idea was to connect Belfast and Quebec with a rail line, yet by 1837 interest and funds for the project had evaporated. In 1844, John A. Poor, a lawyer from Bangor who had a great interest in the possibilities of railroading, presented a plan to connect Portland, an ice-free Atlantic port, to Montreal, a growing Canadian port that became landlocked each winter when the St. Lawrence River froze. The City of Portland picked up on the idea, and a charter for the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad was granted in 1845, to connect with a Canadian railroad championed by A. T. Galt, a landholder from Montreal. Strong competition came from Boston, which also desired this lucrative line and promoted itself as a more efficient and strategic port. To convince the Montreal Board of Trade, Poor traveled up from Portland through a terrible blizzard and made an impassioned speech in support of the Maine seaport. Portland won out, and on July 4, 1846, railroad construction officially began. Due to the rough terrain, unsettled land surrounding the route, and bad finances, work bogged down on the line, and the City of Portland had to lend two million dollars of its credit to guarantee completion. The line finally reached the New Hampshire border in 1851 and connected with the Canadian end in 1853. Soon thereafter the line was leased to the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada, taking on their name.

The Grand Trunk Railroad ran successfully for sixty years, gaining most of its revenue from the shipping of grain from Canada. Portland was transformed into a major Atlantic port, and the various towns along the line also shared the growth through the construction of factories and mills accommodating the lumber trade. The rail line also provided passenger service, creating a tourist boom by making the White Mountains and Montreal much more accessible. The 1912-13 recession and the onset of World War I placed a financial burden on the line and signaled the end of its prosperity as passenger service eventually ended and freight declined to a minimum. The Grand Trunk Railroad went bankrupt and was taken over by the Canadian government, and in 1922 the line was absorbed by the Canadian National Railway. Halifax and St. John soon replaced Portland as Canadian ports, reducing the use of the line even further. In recent years, the line has been turned over to the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad Company, which still operates it for freight.

Gilead, like many other Maine towns, prospered during the railroad age. Steam-powered mills producing spool stock, boxes, and staves became fixtures after the appearance of the railroad, and the town also developed as a summer vacation retreat, located near the White Mountains. In 1891, a railroad line was established for the Wild River Lumber Company, which stretched for several miles south of Gilead to the mills in the village of Hastings. With the decline of the railroads, however, came the demise of the town, and Gilead's population has declined to its pre-railroad size of some 200 persons.

The Gilead railroad station was built by a crew of Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad Company carpenters as the line neared the New Hampshire border in 1851. Much of the station, it is believed, was constructed off-site and transported by rail car to Gilead, where it could be quickly erected and pieced together. This simple method of construction reflects the rapidity with which the railroad's construction was pushed to open it up to Gorham, New Hampshire, and beyond. Its small scale and modest use of Greek Revival and Gothic Revival elements reflected the simple design found in other Grand Trunk stations of this period as depicted in historic photographs. In 1893, the station was moved to the east several yards, and a more commodious train station was erected on its original site. The old station was converted into a baggage shed. The 1893 station was eventually removed upon the closing of the Gilead agency in the late 1950s, and the old station was turned over to the track department, thereby avoiding destruction or removal. Later, it was put out of use and abandoned, and recently was endangered by deterioration and vandalism. In 1991 it was moved to a site in Auburn and completely rehabilitated by the Safe Handling Company, which uses it as an office.

Of the thirty-two Grand Trunk stations built in Maine, only four survive. In addition to the Gilead station, the extant structures include one in Lewiston built in 1885 (N.R. 6/4/79); one in Yarmouth built in 1906 (N.R. 7/10/79); and one in South Paris built in 1889. The latter two were built to replace earlier stations. Thus, only the Gilead station dates from the initial days of the rail line, making it the only remaining structure of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad Company. The original stations of the Bangor and Piscataquis and the Portsmouth, Saco, and Portland Railroads have long ago disappeared, which means that the Gilead station is the oldest known surviving depot in Maine, and probably among the oldest in the country. Though it has lost its integrity of location, its architectural importance remains.