Phoenicia Railroad Station, Phoenicia New York

The Phoenicia Railroad Station was built in 1899. The building is characterized by the long low form and functional features typical of passenger stations in this period, including track side location, platform sheltered by deep overhanging eaves, waiting rooms, a baggage room, a ticket office and a ticket agent's room overlooking the tracks. Its stylish period design is characterized by shingle cladding, a broad hipped roof supported by oversized brackets and double-hung sash with six-over-one or eight-over-one lights. On the interior, the building is distinguished by narrow beaded board finishes throughout, a coved ceiling in the waiting room and many original fixtures.

The introduction of rail transportation to this formerly isolated mountainous region at the turn of the twentieth century served as a catalyst for the development of the major resort industry that became the region's main economic base. As one of three large stations built to serve the Ulster and Delaware Railway (which connected Kingston and Oneonta), the Phoenicia Railroad Station was directly associated with the transportation of patrons from the Hudson Valley to the numerous hotels and lodges that dotted the Catskills. Although a number of other smaller Ulster and Delaware Railroad Stations survive, the Phoenicia station is the largest, most elaborate and best preserved and it survives with its original function intact.

The village of Phoenicia takes its name from the Phoenix tannery, which was located here. The area opened to development as a result of the depletion of the hemlock forests to the north in the valley of the Schoharie during the first half of the nineteenth century. However, the major development of the inner Catskills came about as a result of the building of the railroad west from Kingston. The Rondout and Oswego (R&O) progenitor railroad was chartered in 1866 by Thomas Cornell in order to provide a route for goods from mid-state beyond the Catskills to the Hudson River. The R&O was conceived as a successor to the Delaware and Hudson Canal, which had its eastern terminus on the Hudson River. A principal objective of the R&O was to provide an alternate route for coal from the Pennsylvania coal fields via a connection with the Delaware and Hudson Railroad at Oneonta. The R&O was to provide an alternative to the Albany gateway to the north and the New York and Erie Railroad to the south and assure freight to fill Cornell's steamships. After a reorganization as the New York, Kingston and Syracuse, which ended in receivership, Cornell reacquired the railroad in 1872 and named it the Ulster and Delaware, by which it was known until its sale to the New York Central in 1932.

In the decade of the 1870s, Cornell expanded the railroad by establishing narrow gauge lines from Phoenicia to Hunter and then to Tannersville, Haines Falls and South Lake. Subsequent to this expansion, passenger traffic blossomed through the Phoenicia gateway. As Cornell rebuilt the railroad after 1872, an era of extensive hotel construction began. These hotels grew from modest boarding houses to become grand establishments with golf courses and the full measure of resort activities. The railroad provided easy access to these mountain resorts for New York City inhabitants.

The introduction of rail transportation to this formerly isolated region in the period after completion of the railroad to Phoenicia in 1870 led to an intense competition between hotel interests for summer boarders from New York City. This rivalry led to alliances between hoteliers and railroad owners. The alliance between the Kaaterskill Hotel and the Ulster and Delaware led directly to the construction of a narrow gauge railway from Phoenicia to Hunter and ultimately to South Lake, near the Kaaterskill Hotel and the renowned Catskill Mountain House. Increasing traffic through the Phoenicia gateway led to the conversion of its track to standard gauge by 1899, the year that the new, larger station was constructed at Phoenicia. After the installation of standard gauge, a person could travel from New York City (by ferry to New Jersey) to the Catskill Mountain House via the Ulster and Delaware through Phoenicia without changing trains. Phoenicia itself was the site of the Mt. Tremper House, one of the premier hotels in the Catskills during this period. Old postcards and photographs, as well as artists' portrayals, show the Esopus Valley at Phoenicia with the Mt. Tremper House, the railroad, and the railroad station. The station was also featured in an early Nickelodeon feature, "The Holdup of the Rocky Mountain Express", which was filmed on paper by the Biograph studio on this line and on the Hunter branch in 1906.

In the peak year of passenger traffic for the Ulster and Delaware, 1913, 675,000 passengers were carried. Hotel accommodations accessible from the Ulster and Delaware in that year were over 36,000. Traffic was so heavy on the U&D in the first two decades of the twentieth century that automatic block signaling (a means of controlling train movements) was installed from Kingston to Phoenicia and passenger train speeds reached sixty miles per hour. New York Central took over operation of the station in 1932. Operations ceased in 1976 under the ownership of Penn Central. The station was acquired by the Empire State Railway Museum in 1985 and now serves both as a museum and as a passenger terminal.

The original railroad stations constructed for the Ulster and Delaware Railroad in the period 1870-1891 embodied a similar design aesthetic, featuring rectangular forms and gable roofs, with Stick style ornamentation. However, during the 1890s, several management changes on the Ulster and Delaware brought Samuel Decker Coykendall to the presidency of the railroad in 1895. Under his leadership, the railroad was completed to Oneonta in 1900 and several new stations were constructed. The three largest stations were constructed at Oneonta, Phoenicia, and Shandaken. Both the Oneonta and Phoenicia stations were put into service in 1900. The Shandaken station followed in 1907. Smaller stations were constructed at Ashokan, Cold Brook, East Meredith, and other locations in the same period.

The new group of stations also embodied a consistent design aesthetic, marked by long, low rectangular forms, broad-hipped roofs supported by oversized decorative brackets, frame construction with shingle cladding, flared bases, and trackside bays. The three largest stations; at Oneonta, Phoenicia and Shandaken, were more elaborately detailed. No architect has been identified for these buildings; however, their similarity in design suggests that a single architect was involved or that the S.D. Coykendall himself played a strong role in the actual design process. Of the three largest stations, the Shandaken station has been demolished and the Oneonta station has been converted for use as a bar.

Building Description

The Phoenicia Railroad Station of the former Ulster and Delaware Railroad is located near the village of Phoenicia in the town of Shandaken, Ulster County, New York. The building lies in the flood plain of the Esopus Creek and is situated on a small, less than one-acre lot. The property is sited immediately adjacent to a single railroad track now used by the Catskill Mountain Railroad. At the time the station was constructed, there were five tracks. The extant track is the only surviving remnant of the original five. The immediate setting of the station includes a small building that formerly housed a sandwich shop for use by railroad patrons, a stub track containing railroad cars that are not related to the Phoenicia station, parking areas, and open land.

The building was constructed in 1899 to replace an earlier station following the conversion of the narrow gauge line to Hunter to standard gauge. The new station handled baggage, mail, express, and passenger traffic to and from Phoenicia, which served as an important point for branches to the north and the main line to the west. The building remained in service until the cessation of passenger traffic in 1954. It was acquired by the Empire State Railway Museum in 1985 and has been carefully restored, with little change to the original.

The station is a long, low, one-story building, rectangular in shape. The building is surmounted by a broad, deeply overhanging hipped roof, with decorative exposed rafters and oversized decorative wooden brackets. The roof, originally featuring slate shingles, is now sheathed in asphalt shingles. The building rests on a slightly raised, ashlar and bluestone foundation and is of wood-frame construction with shingle cladding. The walls are slightly flared just above the foundation. Continuous wooden moldings create horizontal divisions. Fenestration is asymmetrical and corresponds to the station's functional program. There are various passenger and baggage openings, a bay window on the track side for views up and down the track, and other windows lighting interior spaces. Windows consist of double-hung wooden sash with six-over-one or eight-over-one lights. Doors are wooden with six panels. There is a deep wooden platform at the track side, sheltered by the deep overhang of the roof. The non-historic platform replaced the original and was constructed at an elevated height to permit direct access to the station without the use of dangerous boarding stools.

The interior of the station is divided into a waiting room with a vaulted ceiling extending to the roof, a station agent's office, a baggage/express room, a closet, and men's and women's bathrooms. Stairs provide access to the basement. Interior walls and ceilings are entirely finished in narrow beaded board siding of yellow pine. The siding is laid both vertically and horizontally, creating a patterned effect. Floors throughout have three-inch tongue and groove flooring. Interior surfaces have been refurbished.

Both the waiting room and the baggage room have the original ticket agent's windows with brass window bars and milkglass windows. The main waiting room retains the original wooden benches, which line the three walls of the waiting room. Also present are the original water fountain and porcelain sink. The floor retains an original figured cast-metal heating grate and a central cast-iron air distribution pedestal pedestal has been moved to the side to permit installation of an electrical outlet. The furnace is extant but not currently operational. A single change to the floor plan has been made to provide a closet for an electrical control panel. The closet is finished to match the rest of the interior.