Stoughton Railroad Station, built 1888*
1852
Saturday Oct 23d Baked in the brick oven brown
bread cake & pies After I got the first
oven full I had pies enough for a second
and I put the brown bread with the
stove oven and heat the brick oven again
Oakes A & Susan went to Stoughton after
Fred and then after Miss Alger and she has
given her sixth lesson Mr & Mrs Davenport &
child came this evening from Attleboro
Bread, cake, pies and more pies. There was so much baking going on at the Ames house that Evelina used both ovens, the new cast iron one and the original brick oven – the latter twice. What was all the baking about? Company was coming.
A young couple from Attleboro came for a visit: Edward Davenport, a jeweler, with his wife Celestine and their toddler, Annie. What was their connection to the Ames family? They stayed for several days. Also arriving for a stay was the piano teacher, Miss M. J. Alger. We might wonder how Susie Ames felt about that.
Susie helped pick up Miss Alger, in fact. She and her brother Oakes Angier drove around today, first to the train depot in Stoughton and then to Miss Alger’s house. At Stoughton, they met their cousin Fred Ames, who must have been coming home on a break from Harvard. The depot they went to was the earliest iteration of a train station in that town, built in the mid-1840s for the Old Colony Railroad. It was later replaced; today, the Romanesque stone building erected in 1888 is on the National Register, reminding us of the tremendous role that the railroad played in the second half of the 19th century – and well into the 20th.
What a full house Evelina had tonight. Where did she fit everyone?
*Image from 1901, courtesy of Wikipedia
evelinaames 
I can’t recall the year when Old Oliver’s diary informs us that the Stoughton RR station “blowed down,” but I believe that had happened before 1852, and that the Stoughton Historical has a picture of the earlier train station that was there when Evelina wrote this entry. If I can find digital access, I will send along the picture. The Town of Stoughton will be considering buying the train station in your picture from the MBTA using CPA funds. It will need a lot of fixing up.
Thank you, Dwight. It would be wonderful to have an image of the station as it was in 1852. I hope the Town of Stoughton succeeds in obtaining and preserving the 1888 station.