Onset
The former station building in May 2013
General information
Location447 Onset Avenue
Wareham, Massachusetts
Coordinates41°45′25″N 70°40′33″W / 41.75694°N 70.67583°W / 41.75694; -70.67583
Line(s)Cape Main Line
Former services
Preceding station New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Following station
Wareham
toward Boston
 Boston–​Woods Hole Buzzards Bay
toward Woods Hole
Boston–​Hyannis Buzzards Bay
toward Hyannis
Boston–​Provincetown Buzzards Bay
toward Provincetown
Wareham
toward New York
 Cape Codder
until circa 1940s
 Buzzards Bay
toward Hyannis or Woods Hole

Onset station is a former train station located on Depot Street in the village of East Wareham, Massachusetts. Originally known as Agawam, then East Wareham, it was combined with a nearby station under the name Onset Junction in 1891. Known as Onset by the 1930s, it was closed in 1959. The station building remains in use by a business.

History

Onset Junction station around 1913, with a NB&O streetcar at left

The Cape Cod Railroad was extended from Wareham to Sandwich in May 1848.[1] By 1857, Agawam station was located at Onset Avenue, serving its namesake village.[2] The Cape Cod Railroad was acquired by the Old Colony Railroad in 1872.[1] Onset Bay station, about 1.4 miles (2.3 km) east of Agawam at Main Avenue, was added by 1879.[3]

In 1885, the Onset Bay Grove Railroad opened between Onset station (formerly Onset Bay) and Shell Point in Onset Bay Grove, a religious camp meeting site and summer resort.[1][4] Later called the Onset Bay Street Railway, it operated horsecars and steam dummies.[1][5] The Old Colony constructed a new station building at Onset in 1885 to serve transferring passengers.[6]

Around 1888, the competing East Wareham, Onset Bay and Point Independence Street Railway opened between East Wareham station (formerly Agawam) and Onset Bay Grove.[7][8] The Old Colony parked a railroad car at East Wareham in 1889 to serve as an expanded station.[9] In May 1891, the two horsecar lines agreed to merge, which included the abandonment of the Onset Bay Street Railway line to Onset station. The station was closed; the station building was relocated to East Wareham and renamed Onset Junction. The existing East Wareham station was converted to a freight house.[5][10]

The horsecar line was acquired by the New Bedford and Onset Street Railway (NB&O) and electrified in 1901.[11][12] It had a short spur track leading directly to Onset Junction station.[13] The NB&O was abandoned in 1927; by the 1930s, the station was again known simply as Onset.[14][11][15] In 1936, the town proposed to move the station back to Main Avenue.[16]

Onset was intermittently a stop for the Cape Codder and other New York–Cape Cod trains until at least the 1940s.[17][15][18][19][20] Passenger service to Onset ended on June 30, 1959, when the New Haven ended passenger service on its Old Colony division.[21] The former station building, still extant, is used by an antique store.[22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Karr, Ronald Dale (2017). The Rail Lines of Southern New England (2 ed.). Branch Line Press. pp. 428–429. ISBN 9780942147124.
  2. ↑ Walling, Henry Francis (1857). Map of the county of Plymouth, Massachusetts (Map). D. R. Smith & Co.
  3. ↑ "Towns of Wareham and Marion, Mass." (Map). Atlas of Plymouth County, Massachusetts. 35,640:1. George H. Walker and Company. 1879. pp. 86–87.
  4. ↑ "Onset Bay". Boston Globe. July 12, 1885. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 Pizzolato, Susan; Byrne, Lynda Ames (2002). Images of America: Wareham. Arcadia Publishing. p. 58. ISBN 9780738510354.
  6. ↑ "Onset Bay". Boston Globe. June 28, 1885. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ Annual Report [Including Returns of Railway Companies]. Massachusetts Board of Railroad Commissioners. 1888. p. 156.
  8. ↑ "Report of the East Wareham, Onset Bay and Point Independence Street Railway Company for the Year Ending Sept. 30, 1889". Annual Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners. Massachusetts Board of Railroad Commissioners. 1890. pp. 312–315.
  9. ↑ "Spirits of Onset". The Boston Globe. July 28, 1889. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Onset's Union Depo". Boston Globe. May 14, 1891. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. 1 2 Finnie, John (2012). "Retracing the Path of a Street Railway" (PDF). 2012 ASEE Northeast Section Conference. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 9, 2017.
  12. ↑ "Chapter 132: An Act to Extend the Corporate Powers of the New Bedford and Onset Street Railway Company". Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court of Massachusetts. Secretary of the Commonwealth. 1901. pp. 84–85.
  13. ↑ "Village of East Wareham" (Map). Topographical Atlas of Surveys : Plymouth County together with the Town of Cohasset, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. 1:6,000. L.J. Richards & Co. Plate 35.
  14. ↑ Miller, Jeffrey (March 28, 2021). "Mattapoisett & the Electric Trolley". Mattapoisett Museum.
  15. 1 2 Cape Cod, Marthas Vineyard, Nantucket, and how to get there. New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. June 21, 1937 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  16. ↑ "Would Move Onset Station". Boston Globe. September 12, 1936. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ Time Tables. New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. June 9, 1930 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  18. ↑ Air Conditioned Day and Night Trains to Cape Cod. New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. June 1, 1938 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  19. ↑ Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard. New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. July 21, 1940 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  20. ↑ "Table 29: New York to Cape Cod-Martha's Vineyard-Nantucket". THE SCENIC SHORELINE ROUTE SERVING NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND. New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. April 24, 1955. pp. 6, 36, 37 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  21. ↑ Farson, Robert H. (1993). Cape Cod Railroads Including Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Joan Hollister Farson (First ed.). Yarmouthport, Massachusetts: Cape Cod Historical Publications. ISBN 0-9616740-1-6.
  22. ↑ Roy, John H. Jr. (2007). A Field Guide to Southern New England Railroad Depots and Freight Houses. Branch Line Press. p. 211. ISBN 9780942147087.

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