Wilton Station

The first railroad station in Wilton was a small, clapboarded Cape-style building located (we believe) to the rear of where the current building sits. In less than ten years, the demand for increased passenger and freight service to and from Wilton necessitated the construction of a larger brick station, which was completed in 1860. It served as a combination passenger station and freight house. Because (at that time) Wilton was the terminus of the rail line, this building was built to be able to house whole trains under its roof at night for safekeeping. In 1874 the rail line was extended to Greenfield; and by 1883, three westbound passenger trains and four eastbound ran to and from the station. By 1888, Wilton's Whiting Dairy was sending more milk to Boston than any other NH town via daily milk trains.   By this time, however, the building began to show signs of its age; the roof leaked and its metal structural members were badly rusted and beginning to weaken. In 1888 a wrecker train with a large derrick attempted to enter the structure. The derrick collided with a part of the building, severely damaging it. In 1892 the old, damaged freight and station house was taken down, and the current Wilton Station was erected in its place. By the late 1920’s, the B&M Railroad instituted the famous Snow Trains, which originated in Boston and Worcester, on special runs bound for Wilton's Winter Carnival, which operated until 1936. Coincidentally, the Great Flood of 1936, which inundated much of the town and caused severe damage to the line, was the impetus for a significant cutback in rail service, due in no small part to the growing use of trucking, bus services, and increased passenger car ownership. Regularly scheduled passenger service to Wilton ended in that same year; from then until 1952 only one passenger car per day was attached to the regular freight run. For a brief time part of the station was occupied by a restaurant.  By the 1950’s even the freight service had been largely replaced by truck transport. The station closed and the building, undergoing what architects and preservationists nowadays call “adaptive re-use”, was re-made into a medical center. This too, closed, and parts of the building have been used by various businesses since, including most notably Dr. Richard Roy’s dental practice. Currently (2021) it is vacant and up for sale.

Abiel Abbot Livermore and Sewell Putnam, History of the Town of Wilton, Hillsborough County New Hampshire: With a Genealogical Register. (Lowell: Marden and Rowell, 1888), pp. 229-230

Hamilton S. Putnam, ed., Historical Sketches of Wilton New Hampshire. (Milford: Cabinet Press, 1939), pp. 16-19

Sixth Annual Report of the Directors of the Wilton Railroad (Nashua: Whittemore’s Press, 1853)

1936 Flood damage in Wilton:

https://wadleigh.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?i=f&by=1936&bdd=1930&d=01011802-12312019&fn=milford_cabinet_usa_new_hampshire_milford_19360319_english_4&df=91&dt=100

Incorporation of the Railroad by the State of NH:

https://wadleigh.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?k=wilton%20railroad&i=f&d=01011841-12311845&m=between&ord=k1&fn=farmers_cabinet_usa_new_hampshire_amherst_18450102_english_2&df=1&dt=10

History of the Rail Line to Wilton

https://wadleigh.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?k=wilton%20railroad&i=f&by=1961&bdd=1960&d=01011961-12311961&m=between&ord=k1&fn=milford_cabinet_usa_new_hampshire_milford_19611026_english_13&df=1&dt=10

Opening of the Rail line to East Wilton:

https://wadleigh.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?k=wilton%20railroad&i=f&d=01011851-12311852&m=between&ord=k1&fn=farmers_cabinet_usa_new_hampshire_amherst_18511126_english_3&df=31&dt=40

Ceremonies on the Opening of the Rail Line:

https://wadleigh.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?k=wilton%20railroad&i=f&d=01011851-12311852&m=between&ord=k1&fn=farmers_cabinet_usa_new_hampshire_amherst_18511203_english_3&df=21&dt=30