1376 NYS 22, Essex, NY 12936

One of the last remaining depots along the Delaware & Hudson Railroad's historic Champlain Division, the Merriam Station stands as a rare artifact of the Adirondack Coast's industrial and transportation heritage -- and one of only three stone railroad stations in all of Essex County.

Constructed in 1928 to designs by Plattsburgh architect John J. Fitzpatrick, the building was conceived as a consolidation point for the D&H's dwindling passenger and freight operations along western Lake Champlain. Its commission was a practical act of institutional optimism: rough-cut Cadyville stone, wide overhanging eaves, a hipped slate roof, and a projecting trackside ticket bay built to last.

The station was named posthumously for William P. Merriam -- original stockholder of the Whitehall-Plattsburgh Railroad Company and operator of a nearby charcoal iron forge -- a gesture of local pride at the close of an era. The building today retains exceptional material integrity.

The exterior remains nearly unaltered from historic photographs, its original wood windows, flat stone arches, divided-light doors, and rounded dormer caps intact. Interior spaces -- waiting room, office, express room, and freight room -- follow their original plan, with the quarry tile floors and waiting room bench in excellent condition.

The 15.4-acre property abuts the Bouquet River and the station has been determined eligible for listing on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places -- a designation that opens the door to historic tax credits and potential preservation funding, particularly for projects with a public-facing or nonprofit component.

This is a property for someone with a specific imagination: the restorer, the adaptive reuse entrepreneur, the preservationist drawn to the particular gravity of a building that outlasted its purpose by nearly a century. The bones are sound, The history is compelling, and the next chapter is the buyer's to write.