The Station (New Paltz restaurant)

The Station (New Paltz restaurant)

The station was built in 1870 on the east bank of the Wallkill River in New Paltz, New York. The rail line was formally opened on December 20, 1870. The station burned down in 1907 and was rebuilt later that year. The rise of the automobile caused the railroad to end passenger service in 1937.

About The Station (New Paltz restaurant) in brief

Summary The Station (New Paltz restaurant)The station was built in 1870 on the east bank of the Wallkill River in New Paltz, New York. The rail line was formally opened on December 20, 1870. The station burned down in 1907 and was rebuilt later that year. The rise of the automobile caused the railroad to end passenger service in 1937. By 1959 the station was completely closed and sold off. After closure, it was used for a variety of businesses, including serving as a public-access television station. In 1999, the station became an Italian restaurant and received its previous name, La Stazione. The building was expanded in 2003 and served as the setting for a scene in a 2008 mob film. The Wallkill Valley Railroad was the first rail line in Ulster County, and was heralded as a cure for the region’s isolation from the rest of the industrialized world. A second Gardiner station was constructed in the hamlet of Forest Glen, in the northern part of Gardiner. The depot was designed to be 20 by 80 feet. The design included freight and baggage rooms, as well as a water tank and engine house. Half the station’s lumber came from Honesdale, Pennsylvania, via the Delaware and Hudson Canal and its framework was raised on July 1, 1870, and work was completed by September 1870. A decade later the station had become a popular departure point for the Mohonk Mountain House by many vacationers, including two U.S. presidents. It was used as a real estate office, and the rail corridor itself was officially opened five years later as the WallKill Valley Rail Trail.

The New P Altz station, as with the other Wallkill valley stations, was based on “standard patterns … rather than by individual architects”. The station had two waiting rooms, while most stations on the Wall kill line only had one. The train tracks were torn up and sold for scrap by 1984. The trackbed was torn up by the 1980s and the nearby tracks were demolished by 1984, but the station avoided demolition and was renovated in 1988. It is the only former Wall kill Valley Railroad station standing at its original location. The railroad company was contractually obligated to start construction in NewPaltz by May 18, 1870 and work on the station commenced that day. By November 1869, the Gardiner rail depot was ceremoniously opened by the railroad’s president, Floyd McKinstry. The station immediately began to see regular traffic. By late September 1870, the railroad had begun laying tracks between Gardiner and New P altz. The tracks reached the Platte Platte Creek bridge by the end of October and therail line was officially open in December 1870, during a day-long celebration. At that time, about 350 passengers ran from the south to Goshen, NY. The line was connected to the Erie Railroad’s Montgomery–Goshen branch to an inaugural branch to the south containing 350 passengers.