FRENCHVILLE, Maine — Local students and Scouts will help revive a piece of Maine history as they work to rebuild the historic Frenchville Railroad Station, which was originally built in 1910 by the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad.
The site of the original station, which also includes a water tank, was added to the National Register of Historic places in 1995. It is just one of a few sites in Maine on the registry.
The Frenchville Historical Society has been working for years to raise money to revive the station. Their dream will now come to fruition with the help of a local contractor, students from the St. John Valley Technology Center and the local Scout troop.
Jordan Labbe, a contractor with Labbe Brothers LLC in Eagle Lake, is leading the project with the help of Carey Michaud’s class at the technology center, which is just down the street from the historic site. Labbe pitched the idea with the historical society’s board.
“I said it would be really great if we made it a community project instead of having one general contractor do all the work,” Labbe said. “This way we can involve the school.”
He approached Michaud with the idea late last year, and said he was on board immediately.
The class will work on pre-framing the exterior walls, Michaud said. Forestry and heavy equipment instructor Mike Berube will load them and bring them to the site, where Michaud and his students will help stand them up and construct as much as they can until school ends for the summer.
The Bangor and Aroostook was among The County’s largest employers during its heyday. Built in 1895, it contributed much to the state’s economy. The railroad stretched from Bangor north with an estimated 200 miles of tracks. In the early 1900s, the railroad company added a bridge across the St. John River in Van Buren, connecting the track to northern Maine border towns including Madawaska, Fort Kent and Frenchville.
Frenchville Historical Society President Jackie Paradis is thankful to the tech center for being part of the project. It has always been her dream to help preserve the history of the small, hardworking town of Frenchville, she said.
“It is so exciting to see this endeavor actually come to fruition,” Paradis said. “The railroad station replica will be an important symbol of the importance of rail transportation to the area’s economy, and it will also bring back many memories for all of us.”
Nine students in Michaud’s afternoon class and seven in the morning session will help with the project. The afternoon class is more advanced, consisting of juniors and seniors, while the morning class students are mostly in their first year.
“It’s kind of split into groups, and everyone’s going to be helping with this project once we get going,” Michaud said.
The experience gives students a real-world experience with a real client, Michaud said.
As the students work on the walls, Labbe will take care of the floor and roof. Mark Albert, another local contractor, is set to break ground on the project this Thursday.
While he is overseeing the project, Labbe’s goal is to get the students involved as much as possible, he said.
He is working to keep the project within the historical society’s $140,000 budget, and hoping the students’ work will do this while also giving them something they can take pride in.
Addison Horst, an 11th grader at the tech center, looks forward to working on the project.
“You don’t get to do this kind of thing every day,” he said. “It’s a cool project.”
Horst has plenty of experience with other projects at the tech center, and will be a great help to some of the younger students involved, Michaud said.
Just recently, the school finished a few baseball dugouts and helped JRS Firewood, a local business that recently lost much of its inventory due to a fire, rebuild. Almost all of the students’ work benefits the community, Michaud said.
Students are also working on a massive Acadian star sculpture with pieces of the former international bridge that connected Madawaska and Edmundston, targeted for completion before the upcoming Acadian Festival in August.
Labbe, who is an Eagle Scout himself, is also working to get the Scouts involved later this summer. He’s not yet sure what their role in the project will be, but it will most likely involve painting, staining and interior work, he said. This would most likely happen in June or July.
“It’s really going to bring the community together and make it not just a historical project, but a community project as well,” he said. “And people can take ownership from that.”
