Walking into the Westport train depot is like beaming into the 1880s: narrow amber-colored wood paneling, dark brown trim, wooden benches with bentwood armrests, a grated ticket window, its sign in a font that reminds one of handlebar mustaches and saloons. Historical displays complete the time warp boomerang.
Outside, Amtrak has hired a contractor for compliance to the Americans with Disabilities Act and the addition of a platform, parking, lighting and a snow-melt system, says Kim Rielly. The project, she says, “will also respect the circa 1876 building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.” The station has been called the finest extant example in America of nineteenth-century small-town train station architecture.
Rielly is executive director of the Depot Theatre, which has employed the former freight end of the building for 45 years. “It’s a collaboration,” she says. The town-owned building is supported by Amtrak on tracks owned by CP Rail and managed and maintained by the theatre.
