Abandoned train station in Jamestown NY

Erie Railroad Station, Jamestown New York

Date added: June 05, 2023 Categories: New York Train Station

Main entrance facing West Second Street (2002)

Located at the outlet of Lake Chautauqua near the Pennsylvania border in the Southern Tier of New York State, the City of Jamestown was founded in 1810 by James Prendergast on land originally owned by the Holland Land Company. In its early days the community developed a reputation as a summer resort, especially for people from Ohio and Pennsylvania. "It is to Ohio, and particularly Cincinnati, What Hastings or Southend is to London, a quite, middle class watering-place," wrote English visitor Patrick Barry in 1866. "Already [in May]", he noted, "every vacant house has been secured for the summer months." But just a few years before Barry had made this statement, the city had begun to attract a growing number of industries. The catalyst for this growth was the arrival of the railroad, which had reached the town of 3100 people in 1860. The Erie linked Jamestown first to the eastern seaboard and later to Chicago and the Midwest. The area's agricultural products and manufactured goods flowed along this economic lifeline and travelers enjoyed years of reliable passenger service. In the words of Edward Hungerford, an early historian of the Erie Railroad, with the arrival of the railroad "the brick village then began to lay foundations for prosperous cityhood."

What became known as the Erie Railroad was organized by a group of New York State businessmen in 1833. Its goal was to connect New York with the Southern Tier, a potentially bountiful portion of the state that had not benefited from the construction of the Erie Canal in 1825. Neither was the region served by the New York Central Railroad, which generally followed the route of the canal from New York to Albany to Buffalo. In 1834, the New York State Legislature authorized engineer Benjamin Wright to survey a route for the new 500-mile road. Beginning at the small village of Piermont on the Hudson River, twenty-four miles north of New York City, Wright's team mapped out a route to Dunkirk, a nascent harbor town on Lake Erie, forty miles south of Buffalo. (Early observers of the enterprise quipped that the Erie Railroad went from practically nowhere to nowhere at all.) Construction of the rail line began in the 1840s and was finished in 1851. The builders of the road, however, deviated from Wright's survey and bypassed Jamestown, a move that saved some fifteen miles of track. Jamestown, whose citizens had been in the forefront of the early movement to connect by rail the lower Hudson Valley with the Great Lakes, became linked to the system some nine years later when the Atlantic and Great Western Railway, a partner and later acquisition of the Erie Railroad, constructed a line to the town of Salamanca, New York.

Throughout its history, the Erie Railroad endured many well-publicized scandals and financial crises. Five times it filed for bankruptcy and was reorganized, under a new name, to rise again as a major force for statewide economic development. But especially for the Southern Tier, it was always more important than it was for most other parts of the state that were by more than a single carrier. In 1962, the Erie merged with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad to create the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad. The railroad eventually succumbed to competition from the auto, bus, truck, and airplane traffic. In 1970, it suspended passenger service to Jamestown; in 1976, the entire line became part of the Conrail System.

The coming of the railroad in 1860 opened Jamestown to both increased tourism-steamers left from here for the resort communities along the shores of Lake Chautauqua, including the Chautauqua Institution and Point Chautauqua-and industry. Already before the Civil War, a small number of furniture manufactories had located in the town, which possessed cheap sources of energy in natural gas and water power. Many of the craftsmen in wood who worked here came from Sweden. Swedish immigration swelled after the Civil War, as did the fortunes of the local furniture industry. By 1890, four years after Jamestown had reached a population of 10,000 and became a city, a good deal of metal tables and chairs were also being manufactured here. By the 1930s, Jamestown had grown to be one of the leading furniture-making centers in the United States. It also was home to producers of fabrics, ball bearings, tools, and voting machinery. And the industrious and community-minded Swedish population marked the economy and politics of the place. "Swedish culture," wrote the WPA guide to New York of Jamestown, "is also apparent in the restaurants of the city, which are notable for the quality and variety of their food."

Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, rail passenger facilities at Jamestown saw a steady improvement. The first railroad station was erected in 1865 at the foot of Cherry Street by the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. A larger and more impressive brick station with a central tower and long wings replaced this early depot in 1897. The Erie Railroad Station was last and grandest station to be erected in town was opened in 1931 on West Second Street at the foot of Lafayette Street. (From 1925 to 1931 passengers used a temporary wooden station located farther west along West Second Street. The Cherry Street depot went down in 1930.)

Discussions that eventually led to the construction of the Erie Railroad Passenger Station in Jamestown began in 1929. At the time, the Erie Railroad was experiencing a renaissance under the leadership of James Bernet who had assumed the leadership of the company in 1927. A longtime railroad man, Bernet campaigned to improve both freight and passenger service on the line by investing in new equipment and by supporting track improvements. Locally, many grade crossings were eliminated. (The present dilapidated railroad bridge that still stands across Main Street was erected at this time to carry the line across that busy thoroughfare.) The new management sought to woo passengers to the line, which had earned the shoulder-shrugging nickname "Old Reliable," with better service, low fares, improved schedules, and new equipment. Mr. Bernet purchased modern, faster engines and more comfortable coaches. Mr. Bernet also extended the run to Chicago through Jamestown, linking the East Coast with the Midwest by an easeful journey of twenty-five hours. Jamestown was now one of the stops on the fabled Erie Limited, a crack train that came into being in June 1929. It replaced the Southern Tier Express that had run from Jersey City, New Jersey (the later eastern terminal of the Erie) to Buffalo. "I have traveled all over this broad land and in every state, " remarked a prominent Jamestown citizen at the time, "but nowhere have I found more real satisfaction in travel than in going to Chicago on the new Erie Limited." As part of this general renewal of the Erie, the company aggressively pursued its plan to erect a new station in Jamestown, New York.

In April 1929, the local press announced that the railroad had chosen the site on West Second Street for a new station that it estimated would cost $330,000 to build. The company hoped that the new facility would be opened by the following spring. This projection was to prove overly optimistic, and the plan (the fifth in a series of proposals) that Assistant Vice-President R. C. Falconer brought to town would be considerably modified by the time of its construction. In September, Graham King, the New York in-house architect for the Erie, came from New York with a full set of plans to show the mayor, city council, and other members of the Jamestown community. King's discussion, as reported in the local press, focused on the general arrangement of the station. Much of the program he laid out would survive later revisions to the plan. To be built of brick with stone trim, the station was to feature a low central portion (to be built with ordinary Ohio Sandstone) that was to contain the main passenger entrance and a larger waiting room. A wing extending to the east would contain baggage and mail facilities, and a western wing would house the American Railway Express Company. This latter wing would have a loading platform able to accommodate ten trucks and both wings would have elevators to carry shipments down to the track level at the back of the building two stories below the grade of West Second Street. Passengers would board trains from a track-level platform that could be reached from a staircase inside the station or by a rear exterior covered bridge and staircase over the tracks. Handicapped passengers would be taken down to track level by means of the elevator in the express company's wing of the building.

When local politicians, nervous about the company's resolve to go forward with the station project now in the Depression had begun, pressed King for a starting date, the architect would give no firm answer. The plan, he said, was awaiting final approval from the Post Office Department and the express company. But, he asserted, the railroad had "set aside some $300,000. We have provided more that the Public Service Commission would require and we want to do all we can. Jamestown is a good Erie town and we are going as rapidly as possible. It takes a long time to get the approval of the Government and the express company."

Another delay came when the City Planning Commission decided to pursue the suggestion to move the station eastward so that its central entrance would be in line with Lafayette Street. "The proposed moving of the new station to the eastward," reported the local newspaper, "would make possible setting it back far enough from West Second Street so it would not be necessary to acquire any land on the north side for widening purposes." Eventually, the railroad and the city settled on this scheme. "So pleased is the Erie with the prospect of locating the station with the center entrance at the foot of Lafayette Street," reported the Jamestown Morning Post in March 1930, "that its architects are now engaged in making preliminary drawings for a revised station plan." Presumably, it was at this time that the Art Deco style central passenger entrance was introduced into the design. The tall pavilion would impart a more imposing character to the main station entrance and waiting room that would now conclude the vista down Lafayette Street. The paper also reported that the new location would allow the architect to make the eastern wing of the station wider and not as long as originally planned. Thus, the loading docks for trucks could be shifted to the side of the building from the front where they were first located. The front of the station would now be reserved for pedestrian access and auto and taxi parking."

By September 1930, the Erie's New York office forwarded the final plans for the station to Jamestown. Reflecting the new importance of the central entrance in the design, "the main portion of the building will be built of Indiana limestone," proclaimed the local newspaper. In January 1931, the New York Public Service Commission gave its approval to the project, and construction commenced in August of that year. Once begun, the station progressed rapidly toward completion. Cornerstone laying ceremonies took place in November and presumably, the station was placed in service by the end of 1931. The Erie-Lackawanna Railroad Passenger Station, which is now vacant, remained in service until 1970.

Building Description

The Erie Railroad Station is a stone and brick building erected in 1931-1932 and located on West Second Street at the intersection of Lafayette Street in the downtown section of Jamestown, New York. Across the street from the station is a large new dual-pad ice arena. Other buildings in the area are primarily older commercial and manufacturing structures.

The railroad station was raised on a reinforced concrete and metal frame superstructure with cinder concrete block infill and exterior cladding of brick and stone. It is nearly triangular in plan. The approximately 225-foot entrance facade facing West Second Street corresponds to the "hypotenuse" of the triangle. The other dimensions of the building are approximately as follows: east elevation, 66 feet; west elevation, 122 feet; and south (rear trackside), 212 feet.

The main facade consists of a two-story, stone-clad central pavilion that housed the passenger ticket office and waiting room and two, single-story, wings faced with tan brick and sandstone coping that extend to either side. The eastern wing was known as the express building and the west wing was known as the parcel post building. A tall saddleback slate roof, the ridge of which parallels West Second Street, covers the passenger waiting room, which set back from the street behind a high entrance vestibule. The waiting room roof is raised on brick gable ends each of which has an arched, Roman bath-type window to light the space below. The central portion of the front vestibule is covered with a low pyramidal metal roof. The building's flanking wings have flat roofs with large rectangular glazed monitors to light the work spaces below.

The distinguishing feature of the main facade is the central entrance bay leading to the passenger waiting room. It is built of Indiana limestone laid in ashlar courses. Two original bronze lanterns mounted on fluted piers light either side of the entrance. Glass fills the area between the pilasters and admits abundant light to the vestibule inside. A large circular clock hangs near the top of the bank of windows above which is carved on the stone lintel the words "ERIE RAILROAD." A frieze of stylized triglyphs decorates the slightly recessed limestone sections to either side of the entranceway. Stone is also used on small sections of both wings to either side of the entrance pavilion before the material changes to tan brick.

The southern or rear elevation of the station, which descends to the railroad tracks, consists of three levels: the main floor with the passenger station, parcel post and express wings; a second floor below known as the mezzanine; and a basement level at ground level. The south elevation is faced entirely with brick, except for a projecting watchman's lookout balcony near the center of the mezzanine that is clad in copper. At track level, the east and west wings of the building each contain five loading bays with vertical lift doors. Originally, a covered metal bridge led from the main floor passenger level across the tracks to eastern and western stairs that took passengers down to trackside. The bridge and stairs no longer exist (and only a single rail line passes by the station).

The west elevation, which is on the level of West Second Street, fronted the railway express wing of the station. It consists of a row of ten truck loading docks. The eastern elevation consists of several loading docks that give access to the former parcel post facilities.

The most significant architectural feature of the interior is the passenger area in the center of the building, all of which was faced with imitation travertine to distinguish it from the more utilitarian parts of the station. It preserves all the original features of the plan and most of its original decorative features. From the main entrance on West Second Street, one entered a vestibule area. On the right was the ticket office; on the left a newsstand. The vestibule led to the waiting room, which is covered by a round-arched plaster vaulted ceiling approximately 32 feet high. The baggage check counter, framed by dark green marble and centered between four fluted pilasters, was located in the center of the east wall, beneath a large Roman bath-type window. At the back of the waiting room, and on axis with vestibule, a passage leads to the bridge that crossed the railroad tracks at the back of the station. A spacious women's lounge and rest room is located on the west side of this passage and an equally spacious men's lounge and rest room is located on the east side. Next to the men's rest room, a staircase leads to the lower floors and to track level.

The walls of the waiting room are clad in ashlar blocks of imitation travertine with a carved Doric frieze of stylized triglyphs. In the metopes appear, carved in low relief, branches of grapes beneath swags. From the center of the covered plaster vaulted ceiling hangs the original Art Deco style chandelier in the form of an inverted parasol. Fluted pilasters flank the main entrance and the original Roman-numeral clock face still ornaments the wall above the glass doors and transom separating the waiting room from the vestibule. The trim in this room, including a surrounding dado, is composed of dark green marble treated in a streamlined classical style.

The former parcel post area and the passenger baggage room shared the interior of the east wing. The parcel post area is a large open floor space covered by a metal truss roof and lit by a large rectangular glazed monitor. Sliding metal doors line the eastern side and open onto an enclosed dock area. An elevator shaft is located in the southwest corner of the room. The passenger baggage area was housed in a nearly triangular room occupying the northern third of the wing, along the length of the main facade of the building on West Second Street. A door from the street opens into this section near the main entrance to the station.

The west wing was devoted entirely to the railway express business. It consists of a rectangular open space covered by a metal truss ceiling with a glazed rectangular monitor above. Along the south and east walls are small offices. The west wall is composed of a series of truck-loading docks. There is an elevator shaft and staircase located in the northeast angle of the space.

The mezzanine level below the main floor contained on the south side, beneath the passenger restroom area, a suite of spaces for station personnel. The central section of this area is arranged as a suite of rooms on axis. A small vestibule fronted the counter's registry which in turn connected to the signal tower from which extended the watchman's lookout balcony. This latter feature is a bay window, framed in wood and covered with copper sheathing, that projects slightly from the building to allow the watchman to observe trains on the tracks below.

The basement level of the station consists of unused space on the north and storage space and loading docks on the south. These areas were served by the elevators in the railway express and parcel post wings.