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Student Leaders: Christina Tsiumis, Harry Patterson, Michael Volpe, and Caleb Raesly
Artifact creation supporters:
Danvers High School Woodshop and Engineering Department: Thomas Sangermano and Tim Murphy.
Danvers High School Administrators: Mr. Adam Federico, DHS principal, and Mr. Peter DiMauro, DHS curriculum director.
James Townsend and Brookes Townsend, owners of Townsend Energy.
People who may need to be influenced:
Members of the Preservation Commission
Steve Bartha, Town Manager
Construction company/contractor
Danvers Public Schools Central Office
Grant funding sources necessary to finance the project
"This by-law further seeks to document those structures which cannot be saved through photographic, video and/or written materials and to preserve these materials as part of the public record through the Town Archives."
(Proposed demolition delay by-law from the Danvers Preservation Commission, via danversma.gov)
Our first step in the process was to understand the history of the station and the past attempts to relocate it. The Plains Station was built in 1868 and it stopped running in 1959. Our project has been a long time coming, 20 years in fact. Many efforts have been made in the past in order to try and save the station, such as multiple relocation attempts and searches for a private buyer.
Currently, the station resides on Townsend Energy's property off of Cherry Street in Danvers. As stated before, there have been many efforts made by the town of Danvers, the Historic Society, and the Preservation Commission to save the building by-way-of relocation. Through research and interviews, we've identified project stakeholders and learned about the Townsend family's willingness to donate the building. Furthermore, we discovered potential sites for relocation, as well as the problems with these sites. Our work helped us gain an understanding of the Select Board's stance on saving the station as well as the citizen's petition that did not pass at the last town meeting.
As our efforts became increasingly difficult, we decided to meet with former select board member and Danvers High School teacher, Michael Powers. Mr. Powers informed us of the estimated costs to move the entire station. The hard truth was eye-opening, and with limited time, we took a re-vote in order to decide whether or not we should commit to our initial goal of moving the whole station or pursue the creation of an artifact. Ultimately, we voted to pursue the creation of artifacts.
Next, we were able to contact Townsend Energy and meet with Jim and Brookes Townsend. At our meeting they offered our class to go over to their property and see the inside of the station. We plan on visiting the site before the end of April.
The Townsends indicated that they are willing to help us with the project if no alternative plan to save the station is realized.
We then decided we were going to focus on relics to commemorate the train station: the design and production of multiple conference tables from wood inside the station. Our hope is to keep one here at Danvers High School and gift two others to Townsend Energy and the Town of Danvers (pending grant funding). Our vision for how the table will potentially look is shown to the left. The next step will be working with the high school to identify a location for the table. Once a location is decided, we will need to work with Richard Trask to gather pictures of the station from the Danvers town archives. This pictures will be hung up on the walls around the table, displaying the rich history of Danvers Plains Station.
Why keep the station's history alive?
Learning about and remembering history helps us understand how past societies, systems, cultures and technologies were created and how they've changed over time.
This station is the last of nine of the original stations that operated in Danvers, and it is an essential part of our town's history. It would be devastating to see it go without a second thought. By salvaging the wood and creating conference tables, we are saving not only the wood from this historic station from going to waste, we are also saving a part of our town's history. That's something worth fighting for.
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