But, before the railroad could complete the important task of ordering locomotives and locating and building stations and depots, the Connecticut Railroad Commissioners designated an appointee to deal with a $13,000 claim against the CVRR. During rail construction several graves in three different cemeteries had to be moved to accommodate the right of way. On February 8, 1871, the commissioners appointed to assess the damages awarded the North Burial Ground Association of Middletown $2,700 in a settlement. The next month they granted permission to the CVRR to proceed with building a working railroad.
By March 1871 CVRR directors made contracts with the Rogers Manufacturing Co. of Paterson, New Jersey for several first class 30-ton locomotives. They contracted with Wason Manufacturing Company of Springfield, Massachusetts for passenger, box, dump, and platform (flat) cars. The committee signed for turntables, switches, joint bars and spikes to meet construction needs.
On Tuesday, March 21, 1871 the CVRR directors met and proclaimed, “the Executive Committee be instructed and are hereby authorized to engage and employ a superintendent; master machinist and mechanic; conductors; engineers; division masters; brakemen and all other necessary employees for the final construction, equipment, operation and maintaining the running of trains.”3 They had their trains on order, they hired their staff; and all they needed now were stops and stations. The team of directors started south from Hartford, and over the course of about two weeks more or less sited the depots. What follows is a short history (and a few anecdotes) of the stations—presented in the order the directors chose them, beginning at Hartford.
HARTFORD
The first CVRR station in Hartford was in a wooden passenger car called “Dyke” in front of the Colt Armory building. This station closed on January 13, 1872 and passenger operations were relocated to the elevated platforms at State Street, which was the northern end of the line. Early in June of 1873 service was expanded by locating a station in an existing three story brick building and utilizing an upper floor to access the passenger platforms. Stairs led up to the tracks from State Street. The ground floor was street level on the south side of State Street, which was situated at a lower elevation as the railroad passed over it on a trestle near the Hartford steamboat dock. There were passenger platforms on both sides of the track that ran on a wooden trestle that was located on the east side of this building between the second and third stories. In June 1873, the CVRR refurbished an old brick house at the foot of Hartford’s State Street as a temporary depot. It was also used for the offices of the company until the corporate takeover by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (NYNH&HRR), and then the offices were moved to the Asylum Street Union Station. This building stayed in service until 1908 when the NYNH&HRR built the new State Street Station across the street.
When the Bulkeley Bridge was completed in 1908 the riverfront changed. The new State Street Station was built on raised land on the northwest side of State Street. This one-story brick building had a tile roof of the Spanish style common in southwest United States.
Colt Armory Building, n. d. A southerly view of the Colt Armory building with the single track of the CVRR along the east side. COURTESY CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
For a brief period, starting on January 27, 1876, Valley Line trains ran to and from Hartford’s Union Depot on Asylum Street and terminated at State Street station. On October 6, 1882 the NYNH&HRR, which controlled the Valley Line through the Hartford & Connecticut Valley Railroad (H&CVRR) lease, began terminating and originating Valley Line trains at Union Station again. The second Hartford Union Depot opened on May 5, 1889 and was destroyed on February 21, 1914 by a fire that started in the Adams Express office. This station was rebuilt and reopened within a year.
Southerly View of the East Side NYNH&HRR Track at the Original State Street Station Area, 1903. Note the covered passenger platforms on both sides. This photo was taken from the State Street overpass. The large structure to the left is the steamboat dock of the New York Transportation Company with a steamboat docked at the extreme left. The horses and wagons are at the east end of State Street where the Founders Bridge is located today. This area was later filled at least to the track level. COURTESY CONNECTICUT RIVER MUSEUM, THOMAS STEVENS COLLECTION.
Looking at the Northeast Corner of the Second State Street Station, circa 1908. The original station was beyond the bridge girders in the space between the track and the building showing three stories of windows. This appears to be a Benton & Drake photo circa 1930. COURTESY CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
On that first day back in March 1871, the team of directors set out from Hartford to locate 14 new railroad stations. They identified four: depots at Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, Cromwell and Middletown. Rocky Hill subscribed to $20,000 in stock; Cromwell to $78,000; and Middletown subscribed to $150,000 in stock. Wethersfield bought stock as well, but how much is unknown.
WETHERSFIELD
The first Wethersfield Station was located just north of the Church Street crossing on the east side of the tracks. A fire destroyed it on the night of April 28, 1896 when the building was being robbed. Subsequently the railroad adapted the freight house to serve both passenger and freight customers.
This station hit the news when Charles Dewey pulled off a unique prison escape from the Wethersfield State Prison on April 3, 1913. He utilized the Valley Line. Dewey was convicted of assaulting and robbing a wealthy farmer in New Haven and robbing a home in Hamden where he tortured the owner, an elderly man, into telling him where the homeowner’s money was hidden. Dewey served two years of a sentence of five to nine years and was employed in the packing room at the prison. At that time the prisoners manufactured shirts, which were shipped out in wooden crates weighing about 400 lbs. each. He devised a way of securing himself inside one of these boxes after removing enough shirts to equal his weight. A guard and trustee prisoner hoisted this crate onto a truck loaded with similar crates and hauled it to the Wethersfield railroad station where they transferred it to a boxcar standing on the siding. After the guard and trustee prisoner drove off, Dewey released himself from the confines of the shipping crate and made good his escape. A little schoolgirl thought she saw a person of his description in the Griswold section of Wethersfield but an intensive search turned up nothing.
The original Wethersfield freight house (modified after the passenger station burned) still exists today. It is located on the east side of the track about 150 feet north of the Church Street grade crossing and was first sold and used as an antiques shop. The first owner had the building moved completely off the original foundation piers and onto a poured concrete basement. It was next used as a bicycle shop. After setting dormant for a while it was bought by Carol Kober-Narciss and converted into Narcissus Chocolate Café. In 2012 Rod and Tamatha Wolfel bought it with the intent of turning it into a coffee and sandwich shop.
The South Wethersfield Station was built on the northwest corner of the Mill Street grade crossing. It was a one-story building used for both passengers and freight and it was probably the only station on the line that operated a mail crane (a device that positions a mail bag to be pulled aboard the mail car of a moving train). Today, it is the most changed station area on the Valley Line. Now there is multi-story housing just off the right of way at this location.