Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/112

 96 sion business in 1873.During September the company continued work on its remaining right-of-way and depot site in Babylon. On September 6 the land commissioners awarded $2,000 to William R. Foster for his land taken by the road. Meanwhile, the work of erecting a turntable, water tank and station building was pushed on. In mid-September the piling for the trestle over Carll's Creek was installed.

The depot site, located on the west side of Fire Island Avenue and extending through to Carll Avenue, occupied the present site of the houses numbered 158 and 164. The east face of the depot building looked out on the Watson house and grounds, a huge summer boarding house that had opened the previous season in May 1872. Both the depot and the right-of-way occupied a strip varying from sixty-six to 100 feet in width and running back 1,000 feet, all of which had been bought from Elbert Carll for $4,250. The station building itself was a wooden frame structure, 38 × 60, "thrown entirely over the tracks, with convenient waiting rooms, ticket and telegraph offices and a baggage room on the north side." Inside were comfortable benches trimmed in black walnut and ash. On the Fire Island and Carll Avenues fronts the legend "Babylon & Fire Island" was prominently emblazoned in blue and gold letters. High overhead a large red flag bearing the letters "Central R.R." waved in the breeze. Alongside the station stood a small engine house.

On October 18, 1873, the completed depot was opened to traffic. The road ran a gala excursion, wined and dined its guests across the street at the Watson House and then returned them to the city in the same decorated cars. Fire Island Avenue at that time was the most fashionable street in Babylon and lined with expensive homes and hotels. The sole horse car line in Suffolk County operated along this street between the South Side R.R. depot and the Town Dock, whence two steam launches made regular trips to Fire Island and its beach hotels. The Central, in June, 1874, connected its depot tracks with the horse car tracks in Fire Island Avenue so that the horse railroad baggage car could run alongside the Central baggage cars, and transfer baggage directly. At the same time the station platform was extended 100 feet, making 400 feet of platform in all. A large freight house, 23×32, with a platform 100 feet long and 10 feet wide, was also installed. {{nop]}