A historic train depot in Kennebunk, nearly 150 years old, is up for sale at a price of $939,000.
Tim and Kathy Dietz listed the property, at 12 Depot St., with Roxane Cole of Roxane Cole Commercial Real Estate.
The building is the office of Tim Dietz’s company, Dietz Associates Inc., a marketing and design firm. The 4,125-square-foot, 1.5-story wood-frame building, dating to 1872 and situated on a three-quarter-acre lot, was the train depot for the Boston and Maine Railroad.
Features include clapboard siding, oversized windows on the first floor, skylight windows on the second floor, hip roof, masonry chimney and granite foundation. The first floor contains eight offices, reception and conference areas and a kitchenette. The second floor contains five offices, a yoga room, half-bath, closets and under-eve storage.
Tim Dietz told Mainebiz the depot closed around 1970 and had various owners after that. Dietz said that when he moved to Kennebunk in 1979, the former depot housed shops that sold macramé beads and bicycles.
Eventually it was bought by Tom and Kate Chappell of Tom’s of Maine, which had its manufacturing center nearby. Later on, he said, the building sold to River Tree Arts, a nonprofit center for the arts.
The property went back on the market in the early 2000s. At that time, Dietz was running his agency elsewhere in Kennebunk, and a friend who was a real estate agent called and suggested he look at it.
Hand-laid floors
“I looked at it, not really thinking I would buy it,” he said. “But we bought it in 2004 and did a full restoration.”
Restoration included replacing carpet-covered plywood floors on the first floor with hand-laid fir floors designed to match the original design, he said. The space had previously been divided into “a warren” of offices, so he opened it up a little. The roof was replaced.
The depot holds a place in many residents’ memories, he said.
“Over the years, I’ve had older people come in, because everyone in the Kennebunks knows the depot, and say, ‘We’re so glad you bought the building,’” he said. “We have folks in their 80s coming in and saying, ‘Oh, yes, I remember this building.’”
Bush family memories
Jonathan Bush, President George H.W. Bush’s brother, was one of those Kennebunk residents with fond memories, Dietz said.
“He told how, as children, when their father, Sen. Prescott Bush would come up from Connecticut, they would meet him,” Dietz said. “He said, ‘I remember putting pennies on the track when we were children.’”
Dietz said he and his wife felt it was time to sell the building.
“Kathy and I are moving into our upper 60s,” he said. “We always looked at this as, we’re holding onto it for the history of the town. We want to pass it on to someone else who will take as good care of it as we have. But I love the building. It’s a wonderful, warm, welcoming space.”
Flexible zoning
He hopes to find a buyer who is as passionate about maintaining the building as they’ve been, he said.
The town’s flexible zoning allows many uses, including office, retail, business services, museum, industrial, artisan studios, restaurant, live/work, medical, veterinary clinic, school, manufacturing, research and development, testing facilities, tradesman’s shops, inn, personal service, single-family or two-family residential, according to the listing.
“It has all sorts of possibility,” said Dietz.
