Small, But Useful

From Dave Brigham:

After doing some physical therapy recently, I drove home a different way. I was heading to Belmont, Mass., to take pictures of a pedestrian bridge over a set of commuter train tracks, for a future post. On my way to that site, I passed a beautiful church, so I snapped some shots of that. That's my new thing.

In the shadow of the church, I saw a curious yellow building.

I thought perhaps the bright structure was related to the church. Turns out this wonderfully restored building has got a much more varied and interesting story.

According to a plaque on the building, it was built in the early 1840s as a private school, in a different location. I'm not sure whether this building was the entire school; it's quite small. From 1852 to 1879 the Fitchburg Railroad used the building as a station at Wellington Hill.

The station was eventually replaced by a larger building and moved to the Underwood Estate for private use as a summer house and art studio.

In 1974, the building was gifted to the Belmont Historical Society. Restoration began in 1975, the the building was moved to its current location in Belmont Center in 1980.

There's not much to this building, but I love how so many people were involved with it over the decades, for so many different purposes.