This abandoned Rhode Island train station was built in 1916 at the height of the area’s industrial and population growth in this area, but by 1959 it had shut its doors.
Designed by F.W. Mellor, architect for the New Haven Railroad, tracks for the Pawtucket-Central Falls station were constructed both below and above grade facilitating pedestrian safety. Mellor was a highly regarded architect who had worked on New York City’s Grand Central Station, and he designed this 30,000 square foot Rhode Island building with high quality brick and granite.
The interior of the station had two levels. A huge waiting room with a 1,000 ft. glass ceiling, ticket office, restaurant, barber shop and baggage area was on the upper level, while the lower level provided two islands platforms with access to four tracks.
In 1959, with the building falling into disrepair, its life as a bustling train station ended.
New owners housed a flea market here in the 1970s. By 1981 it was completely abandoned, and vandals began to desecrate it. The decorative elements were removed and the glass ceiling was nothing more than shards on the waiting room floor.
In 2006, demolition even began on one section to make room for a CVS parking lot, but a community action group was able to halt the process.
Today, the Rhode Island train station is just a shell of its former self.