When did the "Actual " CLP Station close?

When did the station building at County Life Press actually close?

I don't know that the station ever had an agency. It could have possibly served as an enclosed covered shelter only, like the platform-level waiting rooms at Jamaica station. (Are they still up there, complete with heaters?)

If CLP did have an agency, it was closed by 1940, when the ticket office hours were listed in the back of the LIRR employee timetables.

Country Life Press was not listed. My next earliest ETT is 1935 and there is NO listing of ticket offices therein.

So, if there ever was an agency there, it was gone by 1940, and, most probably, a lot earlier than that, when passenger service was discontinued between Valley Stream and Mineola. Remember, the stop was originally designed as a service for the employees of Doubleday, Page and Co., Served the same purpose as Landia station did. I can't see the LIRR keeping an agency open just to sell tickets for employees of one company. But that's only a wild guess!!!

The area wasn't always as residentially built up as it became in later years. It was pretty empty back then. People who lived in Garden City took the train to and from Garden City depot.

Prior to CLP opening on May 25, 1913, employees of Doubleday, Page & Co. were dropped off at "HC" tower, by trains traversing between Mineola and Valley Stream and vice versa. General orders in the ETT of the time instructed train crews to drop passengers for Doubleday, Page & Co. at a designated platform by "HC" tower.



Dave

Greetings Oracle,
By agency, do you mean ticket office Dave? I used to walk by CLP on the way to work, and used to play ball (64-73) accross the tracks where Franklin Court (very interesting little community, I think it was originally built for Doubleday employees)came to a point between the Hempstead & West Hempstead tracks. There was a ticket office space built between the bathrooms, it had been long closed, if it was ever open. After they added on the elevated platform (with a couple of stand-up rain shelters) south of the existing one, they left the station and old platform open. The station was not used much and the bathrooms got pretty ugly and somewhere between 1974 and 1990's(how that for narrowing it down!) they put a lock on it. I would have loved to see HC at it's peak....

Hi Thrdkilr:

Yes. Agency meant an office whereby the railroad is represented on site, for the sales of tickets, checking of bagage, freight, express, etc. An agent was in control of the agency and, depending on the length of ticket office hours and number of days open, would either work it himself or have one or more ticket clerks under him to split up the work load.

Thanks for the data about a space for a ticket office in the structure. That would confirm to me that there WAS, at one time, an agency there. As my previous post stated, though, it was long gone by 1940.

Did the "ticket office space" as you describe it, have a closed-up window access (former ticket window?)

If not, then perhaps this space was just storage. If there were signs of a boarded-up ticket window, that would confirm an earlier agency.

Dave

Yes Oracle, it was a boarded up cashier type window/door, you know the kind? Another piece of information is the Chestnut Street bridge, which used to go under the old station platform, it is amazing that it is still there, talk about low, and old (knowing the town brain trust, that’s exactly why its still there, to discourage thru traffic), 1911 or 1903 (I'm not sure, I think its 1903) is engraved in it, and you can tell when it was built the station was either there, or it was built in conjunction with the bridge because of the way the station platform is incorporated into the bridge. I'm guessing (Oracle Alert!), but I would say the station & bridge were built at the same time. How does this fit in with the overall time line?

thrdkilr:

OK . . . A little deeper digging reveals the following:

The Chestnut Street bridge was opened in 1911. It had an identifying LIRR structure number of H200.

The Country Life Press depot building was opened in 1913.

A wooden platform was added and both it and a ticket office placed in service on 7/8/17.

So, the answer is Yes, Virginia, there WAS a ticket office and it was gone by 1940. (My guess, and it's just a guess, would be that it may have closed in the early 1930s with the onset of the Great Depression. . . . if it even lasted that long.)

Dave