John Schott Interview
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Download John Schott Interview Transcript (106 KB)
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Description
John Schott was responsible for rescuing the former Grand Trunk Railroad Depot on Lincoln Street in Lewiston from dereliction. In 1987, he bought the building from the Lewiston-Auburn Railroad Company for $10,000. For the next 15 years, he spent many thousands of dollars and countless hours of labor renovating the facility and restoring its structural integrity. The Grand Trunk Railroad Depot was built in 1874, and was the terminus of a branch of the Grand Trunk Railroad which ran from Montreal to Portland, Maine. Between 1920 and 1939, approximately 80% of French Canadian immigrants to Lewiston arrived via the railroad. The depot closed in 1975 with declining passenger numbers, and the building was placed on the National Register of Historic places in 1979. John later sold the building back to the LARC for almost $300,000 in 2003. Following further renovations in 2011 and 2012, the building is set to open as a cafe, some time in the Spring of 2013.
Duration
00:24:19
Publication Date
6-14-2001
City
Lewiston
State
Maine
Keywords
Schott, Grand Trunk Railroad, Oral History, Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine
Media Type
Reproduction
Recommended Citation
Interviews and Lectures Collection, Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine Libraries.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Language
English
Comments
The Franco-American Collection is one of the largest repositories of its kind in the North-East. The Collection contains tens of thousands of printed books, photographs, newspaper clippings and audio-visual recordings. Please review the Collection's Terms and Conditions regarding use of its material.