1G. RAILROAD FREIGHT STATION - 3 DEPOT STREET
  

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The railroad came to Collinsville in February 1850 and this building was erected shortly thereafter as a freight house for the New Haven & Northampton, also known as the Canal Line. Samuel Collins paid for its construction. A simple wood frame structure, it originally measured 20 by 86 feet. It was expanded somewhat early in the twenty-first century to accommodate restaurant use. After a long time vacant, the freight station was revived in the late twentieth century. It once hosted Gertrude & Alice’s Coffee Bar, and has been the Crown and Hammer Pub for over a decade.

The railroad was critical to success of the Collins Company for receipt of raw materials like coal and steel and for transportation of its products to market. Heavily damaged by the 1955 flood, the rail line was formally abandoned to New Hartford in 1956 and to Farmington in 1968. Part of the route is now a highly successful walking and biking trail. A passenger station once stood a little to the east and south of the freight station. Collinsville was also served by the Central New England Railroad.