Phoenicia station is a repurposed train station located on High Street just south of

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

, New York, United States. It is a frame building that opened in 1899. It was built by the

Ulster and Delaware Railroad The Ulster and Delaware Railroad (U&D) was a railroad located in the state of New York. It was often advertised as "The Only All-Rail Route to the Catskill Mountains." At its greatest extent, the U&D extended from Kingston Point on the Hudson R ...

to replace an earlier station, primarily serving the patrons of hotels in the surrounding Catskill Mountains. It remained in use for about 55 years, after the New York Central Railroad bought the U&D on February 1, 1932, and ultimately ran its last passenger train on March 31, 1954. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1995 as the Phoenicia Railroad Station, and today is home to the Empire State Railway Museum.

Property

The station is located just south of High Street, a road that leads into Phoenicia from the

NY 28 New York State Route 28 (NY 28) is a state highway extending for in the shape of a "C" between the Hudson Valley city of Kingston and southern Warren County in the U.S. state of New York. Along the way, it intersects several major ...

state highway. It is situated in an open area on the flood plain of nearby

Esopus Creek Esopus Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east-central Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Winnisook Lake on the slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak, it flows across Uls ...

across from the southwestern foot of

Mount Tremper Mount Tremper, officially known as Tremper Mountain and originally called Timothyberg, is one of the Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. It is located near the hamlet of Phoenicia, in the valley of Esopus Creek. At in elevatio ...

. There is a parking lot to the south, and a kiosk to the north, but no other buildings in the area save a small sandwich shop. The building itself is a one-story rectangular

frame A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

structure on a stone

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

sided in wood shingles. Its peaked roof, shingled in asphalt, is pierced by a stone chimney on the west side. Continuous wooden molding runs around the building where the foundation, of

bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * dolerites in Tasmania, Australia; and in Britain (including Stonehenge) * fe ...

in an ashlar pattern, gives way to the shingles. The wall flares outward slightly between it and another molded course below the windows. The roof has a deep overhang, with exposed eaves and decorative

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or ' ...

. It shelters a wooden platform, raised so that boarding stools would not be needed, at trackside. Inside, the station retains its original layout except for one closet that was built for electrical control equipment. Both the waiting room and the baggage room are now given over to museum displays. They are sided in narrow beadboard yellow pine, laid both horizontally and vertically, up to the vaulted ceiling. The floors have three-inch (7.5 cm)

tongue and groove Tongue and groove is a method of fitting similar objects together, edge to edge, used mainly with wood, in flooring, parquetry, panelling, and similar constructions. Tongue and groove joints allow two flat pieces to be joined strongly together ...

planking. Between the two rooms on the track side is the ticket agent's office, which retains its brass window bars and milk-glass windows. The original benches, water fountain and sink are still in the waiting room along with an original heating grate. A

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impur ...

air distribution pedestal was moved slightly from its original location to make room for a new electrical outlet. The track next to the station is standard gauge. It is the only one of five that were once here.

History

Thomas Cornell started the Ulster and Delaware's predecessor, the Rondout and Oswego, in 1866 to get goods from

Central New York Central New York is the central region of New York State, including the following counties and cities: With a population of about 773,606 (2009) and an area of , the region includes the Syracuse metropolitan area. Definitions The New York ...

to what is now Kingston: already the terminus of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, which had established itself as the main route carrying coal from Northeast Pennsylvania to New York City via 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 ...

. Phoenicia would be, for a long time, the southern terminus of its

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

lines, with a branch, the Stony Clove and Catskill Mountain Railroad, opened through Stony Clove Notch to Hunter in 1882. The first Phoenicia station was an 1870

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

building located near the present intersection of Plank Road and Lower High Street in Phoenicia. The station's business increased when the branch was built in 1882; this led to two porticos being added, one on each side. Eventually, in 1900, the Ulster and Delaware would reach Oneonta. In 1899, the branch line was converted to

standard-gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

due to steady growth in its passenger service to mountain resorts. This new

pre-fabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term is ...

structure (a near duplicate of the still-extant Oneonta Station, now a local bar and restaurant named "The Depot") was now the busiest station on the line, serving both the main line and the branch. In 1913, its busiest year, 676,000 passengers passed through. Its five tracks and relocation prevented the backups that had been caused by the trains stopped at Phoenicia to load and unload passengers, since trains extended onto the nearby Esopus Creek bridge. It also had a

freight house A freight house is a building owned and operated by a railroad for receiving, loading, unloading, and temporary storage of less-than-car load (LCL) freight. Having a protected area for temporary freight storage improves efficiency by allowing ...

which served both the main line and the branches, just like the passenger station. In 1906, it was used as a location by Biograph for ''Holdup of the Rocky Mountain Express'': an early

nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

film shot on paper, since transferred to film by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

. Even after the Ulster and Delaware collapsed and was sold to the

New York Central 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 ...

on February 1, 1932, the station remained busy. After passenger service was ended on March 31, 1954, the station was left to deteriorate. On October 2, 1976, Penn Central ended freight service and abandoned the entire line. However, before it could be destroyed, John Ham, a local

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

buff, purchased the station from Penn Central. It is currently the home of the Empire State Railway Museum, which opened there in 1985. After the Esopus flooded, following

Hurricane Irene Hurricane Irene was a large and destructive tropical cyclone which affected much of the Caribbean and East Coast of the United States during late August 2011. The ninth named storm, first hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 2011 ...

in 2011, the museum building suffered damage and closed indefinitely. The museum's staff later repaired and reopened it. It has been open for self-guided tours weekends and holidays Memorial Day through Columbus Day.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in New York Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Railway stations in the Catskill Mountains National Register of Historic Places in Ulster County, New York Former Ulster and Delaware Railroad stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1870 Shandaken, New York Shingle Style architecture in New York (state) Railway stations in Ulster County, New York Railway stations closed in 1954 1870 establishments in New York (state)

Property

History

See also

References