Pinelawn is a railroad station along the Main Line ( Ronkonkoma Branch) of the Long Island Rail Road. It is on Long Island Avenue, east of the Suffolk County Road 3 (Wellwood Avenue) grade crossing in

East Farmingdale, New York East Farmingdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place (CDP) in Suffolk County, on Long Island, in New York. The population of the CDP was 6,484 at the 2010 census. Located in the Town of Babylon, the residents are served by the Farmingda ...

. Pinelawn serves mostly off-peak local trains daily. Approximately 36 trains currently stop at the station every week. This station currently sees no late night or peak service.

History

The Pinelawn station originally had two different station houses with their own histories. Both were created to serve Pinelawn Cemetery,

Wellwood Cemetery Wellwood Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery in West Babylon, New York. It was established as the annex to Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York. The cemetery comprises many sections, each under the auspices of a synagogue, landsmanschaft, or group ...

, and other cemeteries in the vicinity. The first station opened as a

flag stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, s ...

on the northeast corner of Wellwood Avenue in 1895 as Melville, a name it maintained until 1897. From there it would be named Pinelawn (Melville) and finally Pinelawn in 1899. The second station was built in 1915, and moved to the southeast side of Wellwood Avenue in 1925. It was remodeled again in June, 1979, but only as a shelter. Despite nearly being eliminated as part of the Long Island Rail Road's electrification of the main line towards Ronkonkoma, along with

Wyandanch Wyandanch (, ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York. The population was 12,990 at the 2020 census. In the past, some or all of Wyandanch was proposed to become part of the never-real ...

, and Brentwood, the station was saved as part of a bipartisan effort by New York State Senator Owen Johnson (R-West Babylon) and Assemblyman Patrick Halpin (D-Lindenhurst), and given a high-level platform in 1986. As part of the Main Line Second Track Project which built a second track between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma, the LIRR constructed two new platforms at Pinelawn. The existing station building was demolished, allowing construction of a second platform.

Station layout

This station has two tracks and two 2-car-long side platforms. South of Platform B is a small drop off area with six parking spaces.

Pinelawn Cemetery station

Despite the presence of the shack-sized station, a much more elaborate station was built across Wellwood Avenue on August 30, 1904. The station had a tall clock tower, a cemetery office, a chapel, and a fancy ticket office in the main lobby, however it is widely believed never to have been used by the public. Pinelawn Cemetery station remained in service for a business located within the cemetery, until it was destroyed by a fire in April 1928. The walls of the station were still standing in 1960, and the arched entrance to this station remained intact until 1985,Pinelawn - Melville Station (Arrt's Arrchives)
/ref> when the Long Island Rail Road was beginning its electrification of the main line.

References

External links

Station from Google Maps Street View
{{LIRR stations navbox Long Island Rail Road stations in Suffolk County, New York Railway stations in the United States opened in 1895