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PEQUANNOCK - Train station restoration planned
(by Stephen Janoski - Staff Writer - July 23, 2008)
PEQUANNOCK - The Pequannock Township Museum (otherwise known as the Pompton Plains Train Station) on Jackson Avenue will soon be receiving a massive overhaul in order to restore it to its glory days of the early 1900s.
The station will get a new wooden platform, new doors and windows and a fresh paint job. These are just a few of the improvements that Councilman Ed Engelbart, the council liaison to the Pequannock Township Historic District Preservation Commission, has planned for the station.
Built in 1872, it has survived multiple changes in ownership and usage, even being nearly knocked down in the 1960s when owned by the Erie Railroad Company.
The last passenger train rolled out in 1966 and the last freight line ended in the 1980s. The land was under private ownership until Pequannock Township bought the station and the land under it in 2005.
The township received nearly $157,000 for refurbishment in 2006 from the Morris County Historical Foundation Board, but had to have the site placed on both the State and National Registry of Historic Places in order to use the money.
“We got a man named Ed Kaminski, who is the president of the Maywood Railroad Station, (and he) did the registry for us. It’s very complicated and very detailed, and took almost a year and a half to do,” Engelbart said.
State registry was granted in 2007 and national registry was achieved in March of 2008, finally allowing the township to move forward on the restoration plans.
Because the split on the grant is 80/20, Pequannock has matched its end, contributing nearly $39,000 to the project, effectively raising the total amount of money available to almost $200,000.
The first step to the renovations was to get an architect to create a preservation plan for the township to follow. The plan, which was created by preservation architect Tom Fenniman, has received the OK from both the state and federal government.
Engelbart said that the plan is now free to go out to bid.
“We need to get a general contractor to oversee in the restoration,” he said.
The project will likely be a large undertaking.
“We want to redo the track-side doors so they both open, and try to install functioning windows because the current ones won’t open. We’re going to have insulation blown into the walls, and want to restore the original roof line,” Engelbart said.
Additional projects that Engelbart has in mind are restoring the original style gutter systems, removing certain patches of asphalt, installing paved parking spots, along with a wheelchair-accessible spot, and creating a public bathroom. A host of other, smaller improvements are also planned.
The town is aiming to bring back the appearance of the station as it was in 1910. A wooden platform is to be built around the entrance, and several old signs in the township’s possession will be posted again. The exterior will be repainted the ochre color that it once was (a mixture of reds, oranges and browns.)
“People might not like it because it’s going to look a lot different, but the red color (that it is now) really has nothing to do with the railroad,” Engelbart said.
The landscaping is to be revamped, with the area around the proposed platform being covered in gravel, as well as stanchions being installed around the building as it had in 1910.
The Historic Society has also received a $500 gift from the Suburban Woman’s Club of Pompton Plains for display cases after the station renovations are complete.
The station currently houses a multitude of historical artifacts, from handmade models of the railroad to historical signs and tools that were once used on the site. Many other items are reminiscent of a bygone Pequannock, such as photographs and maps of the town dating back more than a century.
Engelbart said that with any luck, the bid process will be completed in August, and construction may start sometime in the fall.
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