Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad Depot
South Lincoln Avenue (near the South Buffalo Street railroad
overpass), Orchard Park, NY
Built: |
1911 |
2013 owner: |
Western New York Railway Historical Society |
Style: |
Richardsonian Romanesque train station |
Distinction: |
One of the finest and best preserved suburban station complexes in Western New York. |
Status: | Listed on the National Register of Historic Places |
See also:
|
HABS (online May 2013) Janel Elizabeth Houton, Reading Henry Hobson Richardson's Trains stations: the context of locale (online May 2013) The Western New York Southtowns Scenic Byway, Volume Two: Resource Inventory (online May 2013) |
Beginning in 1881, the Boston &
Albany began a massive improvement program that included the building
of over 30 new stations along its main line as well as the Highland
Branch, which it bought in 1883. Acclaimed architect H. H. Richardson
was hired to design several stations (eventually nine) along the line,
starting with Auburndale. Although not as grand as some of his other
B&A works like Framingham and Palmer stations, the Auburndale
station's design was highly praised. Henry-Russell Hitchcock called it
"the best he ever built" in The Architecture of H.H. Richardson and His Time,
and a 1904 architecture journal claimed that Richardson's depots at
Auburndale and Chestnut Hill "created a new standard of way-station
construction."
The 1881 station was constructed in Richardson's signature Richardsonian Romanesque style,
with influence from Japanese architecture as well as Romanesque Revival
architecture. The one-story building was built from "red and light grey
granite", with "heavy masonry and dominant roof." The interior was
divided into a pair of waiting rooms for men and women, with a ticket counter between. The platform was shaded by a canopy, which wrapped around the east end of the building into a porte-cochère. Construction, by the Norcross Brothers firm, cost $16,290. As with a number of other stations on the line, Frederick Law Olmsted designed the landscaping, which included large trees, shrubs, and Japanese ivy. A
replica of the station, still standing, was built by the Buffalo,
Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway in 1911 in Orchard Park, New York.
- Wikipedia (online May 2013)
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Click on illustration for LARGER size. 1955 photo by Joe Fontana |
Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad Depot, Orchard Park Left: Depot ... Left/center: Freight house ... Right: Train cars Depot Depot. The Orchard Park rail stop was built in 1911 based largely on a plan designed by Henry Hobson Richardson for the Auburndale, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts depot was razed years ago. Located on South Lincoln Avenue near the South Buffalo Street railroad overpass, the depot was a combined passenger and freight depot from 1911 to 1955, an important period of growth in the Southtowns community. Passenger train service was discontinued in the mid 1950's; freight service ended in 1979. Depot Depot Left: Men's waiting room ..... Right: Ticket counter Men's waiting room. A similar waiting room for women, is on the other side of the ticket counter. Train car and freight house - both listed on the National Register |