Train Station

While railroad travel is no longer as prominent in the United States as during the nineteenth century, the railroad remains a central feature of life in Manchester-by-the-Sea as the town continues to enjoy regular railroad service.  With a conveniently located station, the town is accessible by train to the Boston metropolis as it was during the golden age of rail, when it was a contributor to Manchester’s development as a resort town.

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The growth of the railroad coincided with the growth of summer residency along the North Shore.  Richard Henry Dana built the first Manchester summer house in 1845 not long before the Eastern Railroad plotted a branch line to Gloucester.  The railroad opened in Manchester in August 1847 and, while Manchester was already connected to Boston by stagecoach and boat, the railroad superseded them in efficiency.  As demand grew following the Civil War, the elite of Boston and beyond, attracted by Manchester’s charming village, stunning scenery, and cool ocean breezes could now easily access the town. These visitors commanded exclusive first class trains and private rail cars, and, over the course of the century, Manchester’s summer resort grew in proximity to the railroad.   

 

Though Manchester’s train station now is in the thick of its business district, this was not always the case.  Before Beach Street there was Depot Avenue, as a way to access the station located at the water’s edge away from the established town center.  As Manchester developed as a summer resort, Beach St. was laid out in the 1870s through to Singing Beach and the road to the depot gradually developed as a business district.  Boston & Maine Railroad took over service from Eastern, and, to better serve the resort town, in 1896 built a grand depot and doubled its tracks.  As the century turned, the train station was at Manchester’s heart, a vital service for summer and permanent residents alike.

 

At the railroad’s peak, Manchester had two other train stations in addition to its central depot: West Manchester and Magnolia. These stations primarily served the needs of the summer residents in low-density districts. West Manchester was scenically located on Harbor Street in Black Cove Beach adjacent to the private Boardman Avenue.  The Magnolia station was located in a woodland setting, at the end of Manchester’s Magnolia Avenue near the Gloucester line to access the city's Magnolia resort village.

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Automobile development in the 20th century challenged the train’s primacy in Manchester.  As private motor cars were adopted firstly by the wealthy, the reliance of the summer residents on the railroad weakened.  The West Manchester and Magnolia station buildings were demolished and the stops eventually ceased by the 1950s.  While Boston & Maine continued to service Manchester, its central station building was demolished in 1960 during construction of Brown’s supermarket.  As Boston & Maine struggled in the mid-20th century, it passed operations in 1964 to the newly formed Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).

 

Though car culture triumphed over train travel, Manchester’s stop on the MBTA Commuter Rail’s Rockport branch continues to provide the town with public transportation.  Providing an attractive alternative to the car, located at the heart of its modern-day village, Manchester’s train station continues to provide metropolitan transportation to residents and visitors alike.

 

Sources:

- Towle, Richard. “Trains and Buses” in Manchester-by-the-Sea 1695 to 1995. Town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, 1995, 130–133.

- Community History Archives of Cape Ann Advertiser Gloucester Telegraph, Gloucester Daily Times, and Cand 
- Garland, Joseph. The North Shore: A Social History of Summers Among the Noteworthy, Fashionable, Rich, Eccentric and Ordinary on Boston’s Gold Coast, 1823-1929. Beverly, Mass.: Commonwealth Editions, 1998.

- Manchester Cricket Digital Archives

- Towle, Richard. “Trains and Buses” in Manchester-by-the-Sea 1695 to 1995. Town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, 1995, 130–133.