The end of the station, covered by a wide overhang, is termed as being
apsoidal in form, a word with which I'm not familiar. Perchance they meant
apsidal. In any event, the northern end of the station forms a semicircle, as does the overhang above it. The entire station is protected by the wide overhang, as is the norm for railway stations from all eras, supported by timber brackets, each having a curved hypotenuse with a round finial in its centre.
Built in 1906 by the Grand Trunk Railroad, it is, of course, no longer in service. The
Yarmouth Village Improvement Society, organized in 1911, purchased the station from the Grand Trunk's successor, Canadian National Railway, in 1968, rescuing it from demolition. The Society had the station meticulously restored, now one of the best restored stations in the state. Of wood frame construction, the station's frame walls stand on substantial granite block walls rising about three feet above ground, another of its unique features. Capping the structure is a steeply pitched hipped roof.
Occupied by commercial enterprises for many years, the station appears to be home to an antiques dealer at present.
Grand Trunk Railroad Station
The Yarmouth Railroad Station of Yarmouth, Maine built in 1906, is a charming and very well preserved example of its type.
The building is of frame construction with hipped roof, two ornate brick chimneys, and granite block walls rising some five feet above grade. The station is basically rectangular in plan, oriented north-south, but its northern end is apsoidal in form.
Central bays project from the east and west walls, and a small ell, nearly square in plan, extends from the south end.
The most conspicuous decorative elements are the delicate wooden brackets which support the extensive roof overhang typical of this class of building. Fenestration is generally 1/1.
The Yarmouth Railroad Station stands out as a well-designed specimen of a building type which is rapidly disappearing from the Maine landscape.
In Maine, where passenger service has almost totally ceased, railroad stations are among the most endangered species of buildings. Fortunately, the Grand Trunk Station in Yarmouth, now owned by the Village Improvement Society, has been handsomely restored and has new life thanks to adaptive re-use as a florist shop. This is particularly fortunate in view of the fact that this neat little station is architecturally unique in the state and is located on a historically important railroad route.
Differing from the traditional Stick Style-Italianate stations which predominated during the last two decades of the 19th century, this building, although retaining in modified form the large brackets supporting the extended roof overhang, has a much more steeply pitched hip roof, the north end of which descends to cover a curved
apsoidal form not found in other existing Maine stations. The high rising granite block wall base also lends the structure a stylish distinction not found in earlier small stations.
Chartered in 1845, the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad from Portland to Montreal was the brainchild of John Alfred Poor, Maine's visionary railroad pioneer. Basically Poor contemplated the construction of this route for the purpose of diverting the commerce of Canada and the Great Lakes country away from the St. Lawrence, which was frozen part of the year, to the port of Portland. Finally
completed in July of 1853, the road was leased the following month to the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada for 999 years. Although Portland was the actual terminus of the railroad in the United States, Yarmouth was the point at which the Grand Trunk, at an important junction, crossed the Maine Central Railroad and took up its northwesterly course over the Appalachians west of Rumford and into Canada.
From the NRHP Nomination Form