In the series ... "I REMEMBER THE ROCKAWAYS"... Stevie S. Stevens writes about
"The Edgemere Railroad Station"

In the year 1895, The "Lancaster Sea Breeze Improvement Company"' filed blueprints and a "course of action" plan with the Town of Hempstead -- which was at that time, the appropriate responsible party as the owner of the land we now refer to as the Rockaway peninsula. Edgemere in as of itself, had yet to be named in the last five years of the nineteenth century. The blueprints filed on August 20th of that year had a provision for a local rail road station -- represented by a crudely-drawn rectangular box which was "penciled in" on the north side of (what was to become) Edgemere Avenue between GrandView and Beach Avenues -- later in the year 1916 to be re-named Beach 35th and 36th Streets.

The original Edgemere Train Station - 1914 - facing east. This postcard representation is taken from Page 29 of the published work entitled: "Old Rockaway, New York in Early Photographs" by Seyfried & Asadorian, Dover Press, 2000. (Click to enlarge)

I have no idea as to the actual date of the construction of a small wooden train house. According to Rockaway historians Vincent Seyfried and William Asadorian in their paper-back booklet "Old Rockaway, New York in Early Photographs" they indicate that the station was built "around" 1895 and they even show an old black & white picture postcard -- an image lent to the authors for the purposes of their book by Robert Stonehill of Peekskill, New York. In their caption, they indicate the date of their representation as 1914 but we were able to obtain from the City of New York an actual (and crystal-clear) photograph of the station taken on October 21st of 1910. In our picture, There are "wings" or extensions on both the east and west side of the building -- sort of a roof for protection of passengers waiting for trains during inclement weather. In the 1914 postcard shot, most of the west wing is no longer there.

It is correct that this early station was used by both electric trains and trolley cars. Also, even though this is a two-track station, there is only a basic platform on the northern side -- which means that passengers heading west towards the Rockaway Park areas would be expected to reach a "stationless" platform by walking to either of the main roads and then crossing over the tracks. There was no "easy-access" route to the western platform unless a passenger actually walked across the tracks -- a task discouraged by the addition of a four-foot wooden picket (white-painted) fence.

Although we now think of the (raised) Edgemere train station to be located on Beach 35th Street, officially it is considered to be on Beach 36th Street and when the platform was raised in the early 1940s, it was clearly indicated that the station is part and parcel of Beach 36th Street.

Originally the railroad branch heading west onto the Rockaway peninsula had been owned and operated by a company known as the South Side Rail Road, by the year 1872, The Long Island Rail Road had acquired all peninsula rights and had absorbed the older rail service. By the year 1928, the trolley car services would be discontinued -- replaced by land motor vehicles. This train station continued to serve the area until the year 1941 when it would be torn down and replaced by a large cement overhead trestle.

The Edgemere Train Station "center platform" access staircase as seen from Beach 35th Street in November of 1937. Cross streets are Edgemere Avenue (at left) and Amstel Avenue(at right). Photo Credit: Ron Ziel (Click to enlarge)

Our third photograph in this series comes to us through the courtesy of Ron Ziel, photographer extraordinaire who snapped this shot on November 5th of 1937. The photo is taken facing due west -- with the ocean at the south (left side of print) and the Jamaica Bay at the north (right side of print). The photo is taken while Ron was standing on Beach 35th Street. What you are looking at is a wooden over-head passageway -- the "important" staircase in the photo is not that obvious -- It is a staircase that will bring passengers down to the center of the station -- between both the east bound (left) and west bound (right) tracks. In our representation, look for the "X" over the sign "Edgemere." That "X" is behind the staircase that leads down to the middle platform. Without that overhead and one-story high staircase, there would have been no way of reaching the center platform — that is, without actually walking on the dangerous tracks. Everything you see in this photo is gone today- you are actually standing on what will become the Rockaway Throughway once the new 1941 cement overpass has been completed. Not one blade of grass, wooden telephone pole, sliver of cement, or stick of building material remains today. Every last thing in this old photo will be history within the period of only five years from the time this picture was taken.