UNION — Wakefield Heritage Commission members and volunteers brought history to life when they hosted a dedication ceremony for donors, an open house and guided tours at the meticulously restored Union Railroad Station and surrounding Heritage Park.

Established in 1993, the Heritage Commission's first endeavor was to save the Garvin Building in Sanbornville. The commission purchased, renovated and sold the building, and utilized the funds to buy the Boston and Maine Railroad Station and the adjacent Freight House property in Union.

Today, the station has been restored thanks in part to many volunteers and donors who purchased Memory Tiles for $500 a piece. On Saturday, Heritage Commission Chairman Pam Judge emceed a ceremony where the commission thanked and recognized the donors, including businesses and individuals like Janice Griffiths, who donated four tiles in honor of four local families who made an impact on her life.

“We want people to know what the heritage of Wakefield is,” said Judge.

One of the first commissions of its kind in New Hampshire, the Wakefield Heritage Commission received the 2012 Annual Achievement Award from the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance in May during a ceremony held in Concord. The commission was recognized for outstanding planning, education and advocacy.

The jewel in Heritage Park includes the restored 1911 Union Station. The station, which at one point was a private home, has been returned to its original state. Bill Judge described how he utilized special tools to re-create the original paneling for the station. Restorers found that much of the original paneling was still in tact under the sheetrock. The commission members also found the original blueprint of the station from 1911 and used it as a guide. The station houses artifacts from the region's past, including many items associated with railroad operations and the big local industry of the late 1800s — ice harvesting.

Presenters described how the Union Station was the “end of the line” of the Eastern Railroad for 17 years before the line was extended to Sanbornville, then known as Wolfeboro Junction.

Union was a bustling town with mills, hotels and factories, said presenter Phil Twombley. The station house itself was built in 1911. But aside from industry, the town's thriving business of between 1880 and 1930 was ice harvesting. Ice was harvested from nearby Lovell Lake, cut into 44-inch chunks and loaded into railroad ice cars directly from the lake. The ice was cut using a horse-drawn scriber, he said.

And they cut a lot of ice. Twombley said they would fill 20 train-car loads with ice and ship it south to Boston. Two ice companies building six, 3,000-ton capacity ice houses to store the ice before it was transported to Boston for use in making ice cream, cooling drinks and preserving food in a home's ice house, according to information provided by the Heritage Commission.

The exhibits at Heritage Park include a restored 1902 Russell Snow Plow on permanent loan from Acton, Maine, residents Terry and Patty Gammon. Built in British Columbia, the plow, which would have been pushed by a railcar to remove snow from tracks, is one of five of its kind. The plow cleaned tracks between Sanbornville and Wolfeboro for many years. It was retired in 1972.

The next project on the horizon is restoration of the Freight House, purchased in 2008. Judge said the plans include creating a Heritage Center with an educational component, and a HO scale model (one-half that of a Lionel train model) of the rail line that served the village of Wakefield: Union, Sanbornville, East Wakefield, Wakefield and North Wakefield. The model will be an exact duplicate of what the rail line looked like in the early 1900s.

Members are targeting completion of that restoration by summer of 2013.

lmulkern@newstote.com

What's next: Wakefield Heritage Commission will host Heritage Day on Aug. 11 at the Heritage Park in Union.