Harriman station (Erie Railroad)
Harriman | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Line(s) | Erie Railroad Main Line | ||||||||||||||||||||
Platforms | 1 side platform | ||||||||||||||||||||
Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Construction | |||||||||||||||||||||
Platform levels | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Other information | |||||||||||||||||||||
Station code | 2539[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 1838 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Closed | April 18, 1983 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Rebuilt | 1873; 1911 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Previous names | Turner (1838 – 1910) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Former services | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Harriman Station, formerly known as Turner Station until 1910, was the first station on the
The station depot remained in use by the Erie through October 1960, when that was folded into the
By the time passenger service transitioned to the Graham Line, the Harriman depot had been neglected for decades. The station depot remained on its concrete platform when the tracks were torn up on the old mainline. In 1996, workers removed the plaque attached to the Minot monument, but it was soon returned. However, the plaque was stolen shortly afterward and has not been recovered. The station depot itself was left in a decrepit condition as a result of the deterioration of its tiled roof. In 2006, the village of Harriman's building inspector ordered Norfolk Southern Railroad (the successor to Conrail and who owned the right-of-way) to either restore the building or demolish it. Norfolk Southern followed through with a demolition permit and in May 2006, the station depot was demolished by a front loader. The station remains were taken to a dump in Hillburn, New York.
History
First station constructed
The first station in Harriman, New York, then known as Turner, was first constructed around 1838 by Peter Turner, as one of the many stretches of the New York and Lake Erie Railroad was constructed through the town. The station itself was a 400 feet (120 m) long brick depot, three stories tall, and topped with a French roof. The station sat alongside the railroad tracks and was called the Orange Hotel.[2] The dining room of the new structure was able to hold 500 people at a time and accommodate them with good food.[3] During the planning of the Erie, there was some concern to whether or not the railroad would work its way through Harriman at all, instead of bypassing nearby Goshen and Middletown in favor of a terminus at Newburgh, also on the Hudson River.[4] Train service to Harriman began in 1841, when the New York and Lake Erie ran its first trains on June 30, 1841, from Piermont-on-Hudson, the determined eastern terminus, to Goshen, the western end.[5]
Construction progressed on the Erie Railroad, and by the end of 1841, grading from Middletown to Goshen was in progress and 410 of the 447 miles (719 km) chartered for the new railroad was contracted. The railroad had been running trains on the 46 miles (74 km) railroad line, carrying about 250 passengers per day. The new railroad was completed in April 1851 at its intended length to
Charles Minot and the telegraph
In 1847,
On September 22, 1851, Minot was in a parked passenger train at Turner Station. He glanced out the window of the train and saw the new telegraph wires. Departing the train, Minot ran into the station, got on the new telegraph, and wired the next station along the line,
Naming controversy
Around 6:30 pm on the evening of Friday, December 26, 1873, the three-story Orange Hotel station depot caught fire. Some staff of the re-christened Erie Railroad were examining a room in the roof of the building, and upon looking into it, found it engulfed in smoke. The fire quickly spread, consuming the entire story. There was a lull, but the building re-ignited as flames continued through the building. The Mansard roof on top of the building was destroyed by the flames. No fire-ridding materials to douse the blaze were available to staff and no one could get near the building to inspect where the flames were. The flames finally destroyed the entire building, and just two hours after the fire was discovered, the walls began to collapse on the structure. Within a half-hour, the entire hotel/depot had collapsed and was a pile of brick ruins. Train service on the Erie mainline was disrupted for several hours due to the fire and station depot collapse.[2] A later study determined the station depot burned down due to a defective flue.[3]
The station depot was replaced by a wooden one-story depot, referred to by locals as a shack, along the side of the tracks in downtown Turner.
Plans for a new station didn't come without controversy though, as, in 1910 with the death of E.H. Harriman, there was a proposal by the Turner Village Improvement Association to rename the borough from Turner to Harriman as an honor to the late executive. On May 25, 1910, the association voted 58 to 13 to change the name. Harriman's widow said if they changed the name, she'd donate $25,000 (1910 USD, equivalent to $785,179 in 2024) to help improvement the look and design of the village and $6,000 (1910 USD, equivalent to $188,443 in 2024) more for a brand-new railroad station. It was proposed that by having the Erie Railroad change the station name on the decrepit depot from Turner to Harriman, the local Post Office would adopt the new name almost immediately. Erie conductors were told upon approaching Turner station to call the name Harriman. However, a local priest at the forefront of the controversy, Father McAran, thought the entire situation regarding the train from New York was a joke. To add to the annoyance of the priest, the old sign attached to the 1873 depot was replaced by a brand new one saying "Harriman".[17]
On the morning of May 26, the Erie Railroad sent a statement out from Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey to disregard the order from the previous day. The new sign came down instantly and the conductors continued to call the station Turner once again. Old-time locals felt the name Turner had more value to them and shouldn't be touched. A self-appointed committee run by the priest proposed a meeting on Saturday, June 4, 1910, at nearby Gillette Hall to protest the name change. The priest also offered that if the name was to remain Turner's, he would contribute $500 towards the construction of a new station. The post office also said they would remain named Turner even if the signage on the Erie Railroad station went back to the Harriman name.[17] Sometime during the night between June 1 and June 2, the Erie Railroad took the station depot sign for Turner down once again and re-attached the Harriman sign to the station depot. Local resolutions were sent to the Erie showing citizens' displeasure at changing the signage once again.[18] The order from the Erie stated that beginning on July 15, the station name would remain "Harriman" permanently. Father McAran returned to his outrage and continued to go to the press and give interviews on the issue at hand. To wrap the issue up, a sign in the front of the local church proclaiming "LONG LIVE TURNER" was destroyed. This hurt the enthusiasm of locals, who suggested renaming the local Arden station near the Harriman estate instead.[3]
New station opens at "Harriman"
A year after the great naming controversy and the station permanently being established as Harriman, construction began on a new station to replace the "disgraceful shack" that residents called Harriman.
At this point, the Erie Railroad continued on with a new station at Harriman, which remained prosperous for years to come. The station featured both the main depot as well as a small shelter on the opposite side of the double-tracked line. In June 1931, James Gorney, a resident of Pine Island, allegedly attempted to rob the station and station agent. Harriman police shot Gorney in the leg, which was crippling enough that it required amputation of the leg. His lawyer, who got him off third-degree burglary charges and several acquittals, also negotiated a payment of $20,000 to Gorney from Harriman for the pain and suffering of the amputated leg, despite the attempted crime he was shot for. The jury deliberated for five hours before reaching a verdict of awarding Gorney the money.[21]
By the 1930s, long-distance passenger trains to Chicago, such as the Erie Limited and the Lake Cities, ran through Harriman but made no stops. Passengers would need to take a local train to Goshen or Middletown to transfer to the long-distance trains.[22]
End of service and demolition
Over the ensuing decades, the Erie Railroad fell into debt along with its competitor, the
In 1983, the station was finally closed when Conrail and the newly formed
See also
- Arden, New York
- List of Erie Railroad structures documented by the Historic American Engineering Record
References
- ^ "List of Station Names and Numbers". Jersey City, New Jersey: Erie Railroad. May 1, 1916. Retrieved May 22, 2012.
- ^ a b "Fire at Turner's Station N.Y." (PDF). The New York Times. December 27, 1873. Retrieved February 17, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e "Village Rebels Over Being Rechristened "Harriman"" (PDF). The New York Times. New York, New York. June 12, 1910. Retrieved February 17, 2011.
- ^ Hungerford 1946, p. 29.
- ^ Hungerford 1946, p. 59.
- ^ Hungerford 1946, p. 63.
- ^ Hungerford 1946, pp. 112–116.
- ^ Hungerford 1946, p. 92.
- ^ Oslin 1999, p. 59.
- ^ Hungerford 1946, pp. 92–93.
- ^ a b c Hungerford 1946, p. 93.
- ^ Hungerford 1946, pp. 93–94.
- ^ Yanosey 2006, p. 19.
- ^ "Edward Henry Harriman Dies at Arden After Long Illness". The Wall Street Journal. New York, New York: News Corporation. September 10, 1909. p. 20. Retrieved February 7, 2011.
- ^ "Mrs. Harriman Builds a Road" (PDF). The New York Times. New York, New York. February 26, 1910. p. 7. Retrieved February 17, 2011.
- ^ The Next Station Will Be.... - Port Jervis, Susquehanna, Scranton. East Hanover, New Jersey: Railroadians of America. 1982.
- ^ a b "Turner Folk Oppose New Name Harriman" (PDF). The New York Times. New York, New York. May 29, 1910. p. 7. Retrieved February 7, 2011.
- ^ ""Turner" Again "Harriman"" (PDF). The New York Times. New York, New York. June 2, 1910. p. 20. Retrieved February 7, 2011.
- ^ a b Yanosey 2006, p. 17.
- ^ "Dedication of Historic Monument on Erie Railroad". Railway and Locomotive Engineering (June 1912): 199. June 1912. Retrieved February 17, 2011.
- ^ "Jury Gives $20,000 to "Jim" Gorney". The Newburgh News. November 4, 1935. Retrieved February 18, 2011.
- ^ 'Official Guide of the Railways,' August 1936, Erie Railroad section, Tables 2, 3
- ^ "Erie and D, L & W to Merge October 15". The New York Times. September 16, 1960. p. 1.
- ^ "Conrail Begins an Expensive Trip". The Milwaukee Journal. April 1, 1976. p. 43. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- ^ Yanosey 2006, p. 3.
- ^ Rider Guide Map. Newark, New Jersey: New Jersey Transit. 1980.
- ^ "New Port Jervis Service - April 18, 1983". New York, New York: Metro-North Railroad. April 18, 1983. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011. Retrieved February 18, 2011.
- ^ Yanosey 2006, p. 128.
Cited books
- Hungerford, Edward (1946). Men of Erie. Kingsport, Tennessee: Random House. OCLC 500324.
- Oslin, George P. (1999). The Story of Telecommunications. ISBN 978-0-86554-659-2.
- Yanosey, Robert J. (2006). Erie Railroad Facilities (In Color). Vol. 2: New York. ISBN 1-58248-196-2.
External links
- Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. NY-136, "Erie Railway, Harriman Station"