Garrison station is a

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Downtown, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter r ...

stop on the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line, located in

Philipstown, New York Philipstown is a town located in the western part of Putnam County, New York, United States. The population was 9,831 at the 2020 census. History In 1697 Adolphus Philipse, a wealthy Province of New York landowner and merchant, purchased ...

History

Rail service in Garrison can be traced as far back as the 1850s with the

Hudson River Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

. Prior to this, the only major transportation in the community was the ferry to West Point. Garrison Landing was built around the station, which, along with the line, was acquired by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad (NYC&HR) in 1864, and like many others on the Hudson Line, it is also right on the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

. In 1892, NYC&HR rebuilt the station with elements of the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

and Hudson River Bracketed styles, similar to stations such as

Dobbs Ferry Dobbs Ferry is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 10,875 according to the 2010 United States Census. In 2019, its population rose to an estimated 11,027. The village of Dobbs Ferry is located in, and is a p ...

. On October 24, 1897, the Garrison train crash occurred south of the station at Kings Dock resulting in 19 deaths (mostly from drowning) and hundreds of injuries. A pedestrian tunnel was added to the station beneath the tracks in 1929. In April 1945, the station was a stop on the funeral train of

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, where West Pointers could pay tribute to the dead president as his body was transported to Hyde Park. Hello, Dolly!6

The station house became a

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

station upon the merger between NYC and Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968, like many NYCRR stations in Putnam County. Bankruptcy for Penn Central in 1970 forced them to turn passenger service over to the MTA in 1972, even through the period when it was taken over by Conrail in 1976, and then by Metro-North Railroad in 1983 which rebuilt a new station south of the former NYC station house. The former station house became a contributing property to the Garrison Landing Historic District in 1982, and has been the headquarters of the Philipstown Depot Theatre since 1996.

In popular culture

The original Garrison Depot building (Still standing just north of the current Metro-North station), the surrounding buildings, the overpass, and the tunnel just north of the depot were prominently seen in 1969's ''Hello, Dolly!'' during the "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" number. The building was given some retro facade work and was "dressed up" as

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as en ...

Station layout

The station has two high-level side platforms each six cars long. The Garrison Landing Historic District is immediately to the northwest of the station.

References

External links

Entrance from Google Maps Street ViewGarrison Metro-North station (TheSubwayNut)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrison (Metro-North Station) Metro-North Railroad stations in New York (state) Hudson River Railway stations in Putnam County, New York Former New York Central Railroad stations