Taunton Depot
Taunton, Mass.
Year Built: 1866
Charles Brigham designed a depot in Taunton for the Old Colony and Newport Railroad. It was never built and the plans are not known to survive.
The fees for the depots on the Old Colony and Newport Railroad were the subject of disagreement among the various architects who worked on them. Many of the commissions were given to Gridley J.F. Bryant and others who worked for him. Charles Brigham was an employee of Bryant’s until July 1866 and John Hubbard Sturgis was loosely affiliated with him until that date. It was unclear at times who was owed a fee for the design of specific depots, even if a number of people worked on the design.
This passage by Brigham from June, 1868 illustrates the disagreement,
“I should send you some accounts but I cannot because the year ’66 until the matter of Taunton Depot is settled and I cannot get Mr. Hayes to decide upon the matter. He has been absent most of the time for two or three months and now says that he thinks that your proposition was to make the plans for the usual percentage if the depot was built or to receive $100 if not built. This, I tell him, must be a mistake as it would not be by any means an adequate compensation for the time spent. If you can remember anything more about it, I wish you would write to Mr. Hayes personally as it would have much more influence than I can exert and would I hope terminate a very tedious affair.”
Brigham described the overall plan of the depot, “tracks run through and the offices are in a projection on one side.”
References
• Letters from Charles Brigham to John Hubbard Sturgis, 2/5/1867, 1/26/1868, 5/4/1868, 6/22/1868, 8/10/1868, 9/2/1868, 9/30/1868, 3/1/1869 and 2/4/1870, Sturgis Papers, Boston Athenaeum Library.
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