U.S. Border Station, Beecher Falls, VT

Location: 1429 VT-253, Canaan, VT 05902

The Vermont border station located at Beecher Falls is one of twelve surviving complexes erected between 1931 and 1937 along the Vermont-Quebec border. This group of stations, constructed in response to Vermont’s improved road linkage with Canada and enforcement of the federal Volstead Act, were designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury. Today, the large concentration of contemporary, architecturally-related border stations surviving in Vermont is exceptional within the context of the United States.

The station at Beecher Falls, constructed in 1932, is among the earliest and best preserved of these, and was operational prior to repeal of Prohibition. The Georgian Revival design shares common technical, stylistic and programmatic features with its contemporaries, is nearly identical in design to the stations at East Richford and Highgate Springs, and the is most carefully detailed next to the station at Derby Line. Beyond projecting and iconographic image of American architecture at the international border, the border station is one of the major masonry public buildings located in the town of Beecher Falls. It retains most of its original character-defining features, including morphology, plan, masonry detailing and fenestration.

Building Facts

• Architect: Simon, Louis A.
• Construction Date: 1932 
• GSA Building Number: VT0002ZZ
• Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places