NYO&W Middletown Depot

I gotta agree with Otto......I won't be happy when it's gone, but I won't be surprised, either.

Last time I was there, it looked like someone started to "part-out" the order board. One blade was already gone.

And of course, the clock has been "missing" for years now.

I walked around the place, and found NUMEROUS unlocked points of entry, and while I'm usually one to poke around old abandoned buildings, the neighborhood just gave me such a bad vibe that I looked up the stairway in the station and said "no way in hell" was I going in there.

Something told me that I wouldn't have been the only person inside at that moment.

No one cares about the building. Not the owner, not the city, and Norfolk Southern is only concerned that when it finally collapses that it fall AWAY from their tracks. The order board was donated and preserved before anything else happened to it.

-otto-

Hello,

Does anyone know the current state of the structural integrity and ownership of the O&W Middletown Station? I am wondering if the building has been stabilized structurally since the small fire from a few years ago.

Sincerely,
Walter Conklin
Washington, D.C

walterconklin wrote:Hello,

Does anyone know the current state of the structural integrity and ownership of the O&W Middletown Station? I am wondering if the building has been stabilized structurally since the small fire from a few years ago.

Sincerely,
Walter Conklin
Washington, D.C

Sadly, the structure remains in the same condition since February 2004- fire damaged and open to the elements.

I was looking at recent pictures of legendary Catskill resorts Grossinger's and the Concord, which I believe may have been indirectly served by the O&W as I don't think the resorts were directly located on the rail line. Before the new owner of the resorts had them torn down, I noticed that the buildings were in a very dilapidated state, perhaps one of the reasons why they were torn down. Not wanting to go on another topic but why do I mention this? I hope this doesn't happen to the O&W station because of neglect as it is a beautiful building. I do know that an official with either the village or town of Chester owned the station a couple of years ago. I don’t know if that is the case today.

Walter Conklin

From what I know, the current owner has no interest in rebuilding (or not enough insurance money). Neither the town nor the owner have money to pay for demolition. So we wait for the building to fall in the next bad storm, I guess. It's a damn shame.

-otto-

Was just looking through some old pics that I took after the fire and was wondering what is the current status? I'm guessing it's still in the same sad shape as it was when the last post was made in this thread a few years ago?

greenwichlirr wrote:Was just looking through some old pics that I took after the fire and was wondering what is the current status? I'm guessing it's still in the same sad shape as it was when the last post was made in this thread a few years ago?

I'm sure all parties concerned are waiting for it to fall down. Cheaper than demolition. Cheaper than rebuilding.

-otto-

All of the above is really sad. Properly reused, this historic station would make a perfect NYO&W Museum.

DonPevsner wrote:All of the above is really sad. Properly reused, this historic station would make a perfect NYO&W Museum.

As much as I would like to agree with you (and in these instances I'm usually overly Pollyanna-ish), but that neighborhood has gone to hell, and to be honest, I don't think the surroundings would have made for a good museum location.....even though the building itself indeed would have been THE place if the real world hadn't interfered.

greenwichlirr wrote:

DonPevsner wrote:All of the above is really sad. Properly reused, this historic station would make a perfect NYO&W Museum.

As much as I would like to agree with you (and in these instances I'm usually overly Pollyanna-ish), but that neighborhood has gone to hell, and to be honest, I don't think the surroundings would have made for a good museum location.....even though the building itself indeed would have been THE place if the real world hadn't interfered.

If "a neighborhood gone to hell" was the standing argument, then we'd never have any of our rebuilding or restoration projects completed, would we? A bad neighborhood is no excuse for inaction.

I'm really shocked that the NYOW Historical Society has been silent all these years. As the stewards of NYOW history, you'd think they'd release some sort of statement, even if its, "We are shocked and saddened and hope that some effort will be made to preserve this historically significant structure." They dont have to commit money or manpower, just brainpower. Just say something... Instead, their silence, along with the other parties involved speaks VOLUMES.

-otto-

Dear Mr. Vondrak:

I find your comments about the O&WRHS unfounded and without merit. The O&WRHS has sat by for years and watched this landmark die a slow painful death. If the group had the resources we most certainly would have made an attempt to save this depot but that is not reality. Grants are hard to come by these days and I don't personally know of people like Bill Gates that are willing to throw money at this. We have been contacted on several occasions by current and potential owners to have a museum, only to see the project fail time after time. If we were to take on a project like this ourselves without ensuring it's success we could go ahead and bury the society along with it. Now that the building is damaged by fire and water it opened up a whole new can of worms and it would take millions of dollars to do anything worthwhile. Yes, the area is not the best but this is not the reason why this has never been attempted. Our President, George Shammas, sent out a letter along with our Middletown Observer to eveyone from former Mayor Duncanson, to John Bonacic, to Hillary Clinton about rescuing the station and I don't think he ever got a response but I would have to double check that. On a personal level it angers me a bit that Middletown doesn't take more pride in their railroad history, especially when it comes to the O&W how it directly helped shape the city. Not the case though and I think they powers that be would like nothing more than to see it become a parking lot. At least the Erie station still serves as part of the Thrall library and I think that the location definately helped it do so.

I don't know if you made an attempt to contact the society about this but if you did and never got a response then I apologize, but even if it had been written soemwhere are you sure you would have seen it? Please don't hesitate in the future to drop us a direct line if you have any further questions, our President has a very open door policy and answers all e-mails. You can find his and other society contacts at nyow.org. Respectfully, R. Vassallo - O&WRHS Trustee/Webmaster

You're alive!! Thank you for joining our forum to respond! No disrespect meant to the Society. Glad someone cares enough to get on here and respond. I think i specifically said that i don't expect the OWRHS to fund or spearhead a campaign to save the station, just curious why nothing has filtered down to the low levels where my friends and I dwell. So what is the official position of the OWRHS?

I heard on local news Friday that the City of Middletown has purchased the old O&W Deopt/ headquarters building and is looking to renovate it for development.

JBlaisdell wrote:I heard on local news Friday that the City of Middletown has purchased the old O&W Deopt/ headquarters building and is looking to renovate it for development.

I want to think this is good news. I really, really do.