Fairmount Avenue is a former

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

rail station on the

Pascack Valley Line The Pascack Valley Line is a commuter rail line operated by the Hoboken Division of New Jersey Transit, in the United States. The line runs north from Hoboken Terminal, through Hudson County and Bergen County in New Jersey, and into Rockland Co ...

. The station was one of three rail stations in

Hackensack, New Jersey Hackensack is a city in and the county seat of Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.New Jers ...

, and was located at Fairmount Avenue and Temple Avenue. The

Essex Street Essex Street is a north-south street on the Lower East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. North of Houston Street, the street becomes Avenue A, which goes north to 14th Street. South of Canal Street it becomes Rutgers Street, the ...

and Anderson Street stations are also located in Hackensack. The station house was built in 1870 as part of the extension railroad for the

Hackensack and New York Railroad The Hackensack and New York Railroad was a New Jersey railroad company which was chartered in 1856. The railway ran from Rutherford, New Jersey to Hackensack, New Jersey and service started in 1858. Construction along a northward extension of ...

on a track extension from Anderson Street in Hackensack. The line became part of the

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie ...

in 1896 and New Jersey Transit in 1983.

History

Hackensack and New York Railroad

The original alignment of the Fairmount Avenue station dates back to the chartering of the

in 1856 by David P. Patterson of Hillsdale and other local investors. Their intent in creating the rail line was to help maintain a steam-powered train line in the

Pascack Valley The Pascack Valley is the name for a region of New Jersey, United States, contained within Bergen County. It is named for the Pascack Brook. The region consists of eight municipalities: Montvale, Park Ridge, Woodcliff Lake, Hillsdale, Westwood ...

and have future ambitions to build the system northward. Construction on the new long line began in 1866, with trains heading from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to the Passaic Street station in Hackensack. Although Hackensack was not a large hub, there were several rail lines serving the city, including the New Jersey Midland Line (now the

New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (or New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad and also known as the Susie-Q or the Susquehanna) is a Class II American freight railway operating over 400 miles (645 km) of track in th ...

) with stops at Main Street (at the Mercer Street intersection) and at Prospect Avenue. During the 1860s, service was extended to north, terminating at

. Although most Hackensack and New York trains ended at Passaic Street, service was extended northward on September 5, 1869, when that stop was abandoned in replacement for Anderson Street. By 1870, the tracks had been extended northward to Hillsdale, and public service began on the line on March 4 of that year. Trains terminated at Hillsdale with fare of only $0.75 (1870 USD), but just one year later, the extension northward. The service was extended northward to the community of

Haverstraw, New York Haverstraw is a town in Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of the Town of Clarkstown and the Town of Ramapo; east of Orange County; south of the Town of Stony Point; and west of the Hudson River. The town runs from the w ...

, and in 1896, the rail line was leased by the private company to the

Erie Railroad and station discontinuance

After the leasing of the New Jersey and New York Railroad to the Erie Railroad, the history of Fairmount Avenue station remained rather quiet, with minor changes to the station building and site occurring over the next seventy years. By 1966, the station building had been sold off by the

for private usage as Barbara's General Store and Gifts. The former team track had already been removed from the station, and only the main southbound track and partial yard remained on site with the platform. The station building was already repainted orange along the wood siding and the windows, formerly a dark green, became white. The station continued service through Hackensack as the northernmost of the three stations in Hackensack. In 1976,

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

took over service of the former line vacated by the

Erie Lackawanna The Erie Lackawanna Railway , known as the Erie Lackawanna Railroad until 1968, was formed from the 1960 merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The official motto of the line was "The Friendly Service Route" ...

(a merge of the Erie and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroads) and service of the station. By 1980, during partial ownership between Conrail and New Jersey Transit, the Fairmount Avenue station remained as a part of the line, but by the 1982 timetables, was removed from service. The station building, although it does not receive any active service, remains standing in its orange and white paintjob. The station building is now a donut shop.

Station layout and services

The former Fairmount Avenue station was located at the intersection of Fairmount Avenue and Temple Avenue in the city of

Hackensack, New Jersey Hackensack is a city in and the county seat of Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.New Jers ...

. The building was centered in the middle of Fairmount Park and had access from Temple Avenue, where crossing gates were visible. The three tracks and gravel platform split the station from a large parking lot nearby. There was also a small gravel parking lot on the southern side of the station. To the north of the station was a stone interlocking tower at the intersection with Main Street. The Fairmount Avenue station had a shingled-roof with a large, angled canopy, and a beige wood siding. There was one asphalt platform servicing all three tracks, and the long canopy over the platform was made in similar design to

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

's 4th Street station. The beige wood was also given green window-frames to benefit the look. The station contained two mainline tracks, the northbound one, and the nearby team track. There was also a third track in the opposite side working as a partial freight yard.

References

External links

{{coord, 40, 54, 0.3234, N, 74, 02, 25.1514, W, type:railwaystation_source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title Former NJ Transit stations Hackensack, New Jersey Former Erie Railroad stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1870 1870 establishments in New Jersey Former railway stations in New Jersey Railway stations in the United States closed in 1982