Recently, a lady, who like myself grew up in the Back Bay section of Newburyport, pointed out to me that many people today cannot believe that there once was a railroad depot on Pond Street where the CVS/pharmacy is now located. Well, there certainly was, and a busy place it was. I lived next door to it and remember it well.
The facility was opened about 1850 by the Newburyport Railroad Company. It was the terminus of the Western Division line that ran out through Byfield and Georgetown and eventually to Boston. It crossed the already existing Eastern Division line at about where today's passenger depot is. The track ran between State Street and Cherry Street and crossed Greenleaf Street adjacent to Fulton Street.
The Boston and Maine Railroad took over operation of the line in 1853. Both passenger and freight service were conducted. Around 1884, the B&M and the Eastern consolidated and in October 1885, all passenger service went out of the depot on Washington Street, and Pond Street was for freight only.
There was an old wooden roundhouse at the Pond Street yard, and upon the elimination of the passenger service, it was moved to face Greenleaf Street. In March 1908, Glen Mills Cereal Company of Rowley leased the structure and operated for many years making flour. The mill, under different owners, ceased operations in the early 1940s. Both Hytron and C. Leary Bottling Company leased the building for storage for many years following the mill operations.
On June 25, 1914, Steamer 2 of the Newburyport Fire Department was loaded onto a flatcar on Pond Street and sent to Salem with a crew to help fight the great fire, which destroyed a large section of that city. The locals were credited with saving many homes in the Cabot Street area.
The original passenger depot building that faced on Pond Street was purchased in 1928 by "Bossy" Gillis and moved to Dalton Street. It was demolished several years later.
On February 21, 1935, the new B&M "Flying Yankee" streamliner arrived at the Pond Street yard and opened for public inspection. The Daily News reported 6,000 people boarded and viewed its lavish interior.
There were five sets of tracks that crossed Greenleaf Street; one went to the mill and the other four to the freight area. There was a large freight house for storage and office purposes. Farther down the track toward Route 1 and the traffic circle, there was a side track that went to the H.A. Johnson Oven Factory, which was on State Street where Port Sheet Metal Company is located today.
Back in the 1940s, there were always 10 or 12 freight cars at the depot. New cars arrived almost daily and were immediately unloaded.
Some of the many things I can remember arriving were heifers and young horses for various area farms and pigs for the Sweeney Farm on Hale Street. New automobiles and trucks for local dealers after World War II. Coal, lumber and large pieces of machinery arrived regularly, as did raw materials for the many local industries, including hides for the tannery on Federal Street, which left an aroma detectable for a considerable distance. Huge rolls of paper, weighing several hundred pounds, were transported from the depot to The Daily News on Inn Street by Cashman Brothers.
Various items of smaller freight for merchants and industries would be unloaded into the freight house and delivered by local expressmen. I remember Waltons Express being there just about every day picking up and dropping off boxes of goods. At this time, there was a man by the name of MacDonald who was the freight agent at the depot.
With the decline of the railroads in the 1950s, the Pond Street site was closed and sold to the First National Supermarket chain. The last freight train out of Pond Street was in late 1954.
The freight house and the mill were demolished in the summer of 1955 and the tracks removed then as well. The First National opened in October 1956, expanded with an addition in April 1968 and closed in July 1980. A couple other food stores operated for short periods of time, but were unsuccessful before giving way to the busy CVS.
Today, there is not any visible evidence of any railroad operations in the area. Homes were constructed off Cherry Street along the track route and also on Boylston Street. The west parking lot at the district court covers where the track ran, as does the parking lot of the fire station.
¢¢¢
Joe Callahan is a former fire chief of Salisbury who is interested in historical accounts of the area.
