Oyster Bay station

	Oyster Bay Long Island Rail Road Turntable
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	Oyster Bay Station Turntable (behind chainlink fence).
Location	40°52′29.8″N73°31′42.9″W / 40.874944°N 73.528583°W ; Railroad Avenue, Oyster Bay, New York, USA
Built	1902
NRHP reference No.	05000667
Added to NRHP	July 6, 2005

Oyster Bay
Oyster Bay
	The Oyster Bay station, as seen in 2016
General information
Location	Shore & Maxwell Avenues; Oyster Bay, NY
Owned by	Long Island Rail Road ; Town of Oyster Bay
Line(s)	Oyster Bay Branch
Distance	32.9 mi (52.9 km) from Long Island City
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	2
Connections	Oyster Bay Taxi
Construction
Parking	Yes; Free
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Fare zone	7
History
Opened	June 24, 1889
Rebuilt	1902
Passengers
2006	225
Services
Former services
	Oyster Bay Long Island Rail Road Station
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Railroad Avenue,; Oyster Bay, New York, USA
Coordinates	40°52′29.97″N73°31′53.77″W / 40.8749917°N 73.5316028°W
Architectural style	Tudor Revival
NRHP reference No.	05000666
Added to NRHP	July 6, 2005
Location
Location

Last updated July 03, 2024

Oyster Bay is the terminus on the Oyster Bay Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. The station is located off Shore Avenue between Maxwell and Larabee Avenues. It is a sheltered concrete elevated platform that stands in the shadows of the original station, which was accessible from the ends of Maxwell, Audrey, and Hamilton Avenues. Both stations exist along the south side of Roosevelt Park.

The original Oyster Bay station opened on June 24, 1889 and remodeled in 1902. At one point there were plans to extend the line east towards the Port Jefferson Branch. There was also a large pier built to facilitate the loading of passenger cars onto a short-lived ferry to Wilson's Point in South Norwalk, Connecticut that is now owned by the Flowers Oyster Company. The former Oyster Bay Station and the Oyster Bay Long Island Rail Road Turntable were both listed separately on the National Register of Historic Places on July 6, 2005.^[5] Efforts are under way to transform the former station into a railroad museum.^[6]

No bus services are available for the station, however local taxicabs do stop.

Platform and track configuration

This station has one high-level side platform, four cars long, located adjacent to the south track. The north track, not adjacent to the platform, is a passing siding, which rejoins the south track and leads to a seven-track yard just beyond the station. The old station building lies just east of the new station. The Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park is just to the north of the siding track.

Track 1	← Oyster Bay Branch toward Long Island City or Penn Station (Locust Valley)
Side platform, doors will open on the left or right

History

On June 24, 1889, the Oyster Bay Extension Railroad, a subsidiary of the Long Island Railroad, extended the terminus of its rail line from Locust Valley to Oyster Bay and constructed this beautiful Victorian train station on land donated by Col. Robert Townsend.^[2]^[7] Service began with eight round trips operating from Long Island City.^[7] The original station had a large wooden platform and an elegant porte cochere, a covered porch large enough for horse-drawn carriages to pass through.

In 1891, the Long Island Rail Road connected the land to the sea via a 1,000-foot-long (300 m) wharf that enabled rail cars full of passengers to be loaded onto a ferry. This ferry, called the Cape Charles would take passengers to Connecticut where the railways would be connected to the Housatonic Railroad and continue on to Boston. This unique service from New York to Boston ceased operations when a land route across Connecticut was built.

On September 9, 1891, Locomotive No. 113 exploded while idling in the station awaiting passengers. People as far away as East Norwich felt the force of the blast; three crewmen were killed.^[8]

When Theodore Roosevelt became President of the New York City Police Board in 1895, he commuted regularly through this station, and when he became President of the United States in 1901, a huge expansion of the station was planned to accommodate the expected rise in visitors to the hamlet. Those 1902 renovations included the removal of the porte cochere and the addition of 400-foot-long (120 m) weather sheds. Inside the station, a large fireplace and tiled hearth were added, and on the exterior a special stucco was used that contained real oyster shells.

The architect for the 1902 renovations was Bradford Lee Gilbert, who also designed the 1898 renovations to Grand Central Station.

At the end of the 20th century, the station fell into a state of disrepair. To accommodate double-decker trains, a new station and platform were built nearby.

Railroad museum

The Oyster Bay Railroad Museum, a New York state historical/educational not-for-profit museum, is working on the museum under the Town of Oyster Bay. The original LIRR Oyster Bay railroad station is now owned by the Town of Oyster Bay, rather than the LIRR and currently is not accessible to the public while undergoing various engineering and architectural studies and reviews in order to start the restoration into a museum.

The Oyster Bay Railroad Museum has begun work to transform the station into the new home of the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum.^[9] The original station is open weekends from April to November as one of two locations for the railroad museum, the other being a small open air yard and turntable site on the east side of Theodore Roosevelt Park, a short walk from the station.

Turntable

Oyster Bay is the location of one of few remaining Long Island Rail Road stations with an original turntable on site. The turntable was built in 1902 to replace a smaller one that had been relocated from the Locust Valley station.^[10] The turntable, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places separately from the station, is a Town of Oyster Bay Landmark, and a featured site on the Oyster Bay History Walk audio walking tour.

Related Research Articles

The Long Island Rail Road, often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. The railroad currently operates a public commuter rail service, with its freight operations contracted to the New York and Atlantic Railway. With an average weekday ridership of 354,800 passengers in 2016, it is the busiest commuter railroad in North America. It is also one of the world's few commuter systems that runs 24/7 year-round. It is publicly owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which refers to it as MTA Long Island Rail Road. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 75,186,900, or about 276,800 per weekday as of the first quarter of 2024.

Oyster Bay is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Oyster Bay on the North Shore of Long Island in Nassau County in the state of New York, United States. The hamlet is also the site of a station on the Oyster Bay Branch of the Long Island Rail Road and the eastern termination point of that branch of the railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morris Park Facility</span> Railroad maintenance facility in Queens, New York

The Morris Park Facility is a maintenance facility of the Long Island Rail Road in Queens, New York City. It includes two employee-only side platforms on the Atlantic Branch named Boland's Landing. Two wooden platforms, each two cars long, exist on the two-track line, with a flashlight for workers to signal trains to stop.

The Oyster Bay Branch is a rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch splits from the Main Line just east of Mineola station, and runs north and east to Oyster Bay. The branch is electrified between East Williston and Mineola. The branch opened in segments between 1865 and 1889.

The West Hempstead Branch is an electrified rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). It runs between Valley Stream and West Hempstead, in Nassau County, New York, United States.

The Long Island City station is a rail terminal of the Long Island Rail Road in the Hunters Point and Long Island City neighborhoods of Queens, New York City. Located within the City Terminal Zone at Borden Avenue and Second Street, it is the westernmost LIRR station in Queens and the end of both the Main Line and Montauk Branch. The station consists of one passenger platform located at ground level and is wheelchair accessible.

The Mineola Intermodal Center is an intermodal center and transportation hub in the village of Mineola, Nassau County, New York, U.S. It contains the Mineola Long Island Rail Road station – one of the railroad's busiest stations – in addition to one of the Nassau Inter-County Express bus system's main hubs, located adjacent to the southern train platform.

The Long Island Rail Road is a railroad owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in the U.S. state of New York. It is the oldest United States railroad still operating under its original name and charter. It consolidated several other companies in the late 19th century. The Pennsylvania Railroad owned the Long Island Rail Road for the majority of the 20th century and sold it to the State in 1966.

Greenport is the terminus of the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is officially located at Wiggins Street and Fourth Street in the Village of Greenport, New York, although the property spans as far east as 3rd Street and the Shelter Island North Ferry terminal.

The Queens Village station is a commuter rail station on the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line, located between 218th Street and Springfield Boulevard, in the Queens Village neighborhood of Queens, New York City. It has two side platforms along the four-track line, and is served primarily by Hempstead Branch trains.

Riverhead is a station along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located on Osborne Avenue and Railroad Street in Riverhead, New York, north of NY 25 and the Suffolk County Court House.

Glen Street is a station on the Oyster Bay Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located on Glen Street, near Elm Avenue, in the City of Glen Cove, Nassau County, New York.

Roslyn is a station on the Long Island Rail Road's Oyster Bay Branch. It is located at Lincoln Avenue and Railroad Avenue, west of Roslyn Road and south of Warner Avenue, in Roslyn Heights, Nassau County, New York.

Greenvale is a station on the Long Island Rail Road's Oyster Bay Branch. The station is located off Helen Street, between Glen Cove Avenue and Glen Cove Road in the Incorporated Village of Roslyn Harbor, in Nassau County, New York.

Sea Cliff is a station on the Oyster Bay Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located on Sea Cliff Avenue and Glen Keith Road, between Glen Cove Avenue and Cedar Swamp Road, in the City of Glen Cove, in Nassau County, New York.

Locust Valley is a station on the Oyster Bay Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located at Birch Hill Road and Piping Rock Road, south of Forest Avenue, in Locust Valley, Nassau County, New York.

Islip is a station on the Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, off NY 111 and Nassau Avenue, north of Suffolk CR 50, and south of Moffitt Boulevard in Islip, New York.

The Railroad Museum of Long Island is a railway museum based on the North Fork of Long Island, New York, U.S. It has two locations: the main location in Riverhead, and a satellite location in Greenport, west of the North Ferry to Shelter Island. Both facilities contain active model railroad displays and gift shops.

The Pennsylvania Railroad G5 is a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotives built by the PRR's Juniata Shops in the mid-late 1920s. It was designed for passenger trains, particularly on commuter lines, and became a fixture on suburban railroads until the mid-1950s.

References

↑ Long Island Rail Road (May 14, 2012). "TIMETABLE No. 4" (PDF). p. VI. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
1 2 "The Railroad Extension". The Brooklyn Times Union. June 22, 1889. p. 2. Retrieved September 21, 2021– via Newspapers.com.
↑ Average weekday, 2006 LIRR Origin and Destination Study
1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
↑ National Register of Historic Places Listings; July 15, 2005
↑ Karppi, Dagmar Fors (July 17, 2007). "Oyster Bay Railroad Museum Brings Tourists to Oyster Bay". Oyster Bay Enterprise Pilot. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
1 2 "Oyster Bay, Mill Neck, and Syosset: The History of Long Island Rail Road Service to Northeastern Nassau County". Derek Stadler. September 21, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
↑ Long Island Rail Road Wrecks (TrainsAreFun.com)
↑ "Introduction". Oyster Bay History Walk . Oyster Bay Main Street Association. April 8, 2009. Archived from the original on March 27, 2009.
↑ Hammond, John E. (2009). Oyster Bay. Images of America. Charleston, SC: Arcadia. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-7385-6590-3.

Morrison, David D. (2018). Long Island Rail Road - Oyster Bay Branch. Images of Rail. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4671-2854-4

External links

Media related to Oyster Bay (LIRR station) at Wikimedia Commons

Oyster Bay Station History (Arrt's Arrchives)
Oyster Bay Railroad Museum
Moving equipment to and from Mitchell Field (Including YouTube Videos) ^[usurped] (Unofficial LIRR History Website)
Oyster Bay Station History (Steve Lynch's LIRR Maps, Photos, Charts, etc.) (TrainsAreFun.com)
Oyster Bay Turntable (TrainsAreFun.com)
Platform and parking lot, seen from Google Maps Street View

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[ett-20120514-1] Long Island Rail Road (May 14, 2012). "TIMETABLE No. 4" (PDF). p. VI. Retrieved August 7, 2022.

[1889extension-2] 1 2 "The Railroad Extension". The Brooklyn Times Union. June 22, 1889. p. 2. Retrieved September 21, 2021– via Newspapers.com.

[3] Average weekday, 2006 LIRR Origin and Destination Study

[nris-4] 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.

[5] National Register of Historic Places Listings; July 15, 2005

[6] Karppi, Dagmar Fors (July 17, 2007). "Oyster Bay Railroad Museum Brings Tourists to Oyster Bay". Oyster Bay Enterprise Pilot. Retrieved September 18, 2009.

[Derek_Stadler_2014-7] 1 2 "Oyster Bay, Mill Neck, and Syosset: The History of Long Island Rail Road Service to Northeastern Nassau County". Derek Stadler. September 21, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2015.

[8] Long Island Rail Road Wrecks (TrainsAreFun.com)

[9] "Introduction". Oyster Bay History Walk . Oyster Bay Main Street Association. April 8, 2009. Archived from the original on March 27, 2009.

[10] Hammond, John E. (2009). Oyster Bay. Images of America. Charleston, SC: Arcadia. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-7385-6590-3.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places in New York
Topics	Contributing property Keeper of the Register Historic district History of the National Register of Historic Places National Park Service Property types
Lists by county	Albany Allegany Bronx Broome Cattaraugus Cayuga Chautauqua Chemung Chenango Clinton Columbia Cortland Delaware Dutchess Erie Essex Franklin Fulton Genesee Greene Hamilton Herkimer Jefferson Kings (Brooklyn) Lewis Livingston Madison Monroe Montgomery Nassau New York (Manhattan) Niagara Oneida Onondaga Ontario Orange Orleans Oswego Otsego Putnam Queens Rensselaer Richmond (Staten Island) Rockland Saratoga Schenectady Schoharie Schuyler Seneca St. Lawrence Steuben Suffolk Sullivan Tioga Tompkins Ulster Warren Washington Wayne Westchester Northern Southern Wyoming Yates
Lists by city	Albany Buffalo New Rochelle New York City Bronx Brooklyn Queens Staten Island Manhattan Below 14th St. 14th–59th St. 59th–110th St. Above 110th St. Minor islands Niagara Falls Peekskill Poughkeepsie Rhinebeck Rochester Syracuse Yonkers
Other lists	Bridges and tunnels National Historic Landmarks
Category List National Register of Historic Places Portal