Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/15

 The Flushing R.R. Takes Shape from the Legislature to buy out the old Ravenswood, Hallett's Cove & Williamsburgh Turnpike & Bridge Co., which owned the Manhattan Avenue Bridge over Newtown Creek into Brooklyn, and Franklin Street on the Brooklyn side, down to Bushwick Creek, the border of Williamsburgh. The Brooklyn City R.R. was at that time (1853) extending its crosstown horse car line north up Kent Avenue to Bushwick Creek. The Flushing R.R. planned to lay track across Newtown Creek and down Franklin Street to the Bushwick Creek Bridge, where its passengers could change cars for all the Brooklyn ferries.

During the course of construction another dispute arose as to the exact location of the Flushing terminal. When the railroad scheme was first envisaged, two possible sites for a depot were considered, the first just below the bridge at Northern Boulevard and the second, the Prince Nursery grounds, extending from about Fortieth Road to Forty-first Road and from Main Street west to the creek. Advocates of the bridge site urged purchase of the existing bridge so as to save the expense of constructing a new one; also that the depot would be in the heart of the business district. (In 1850 Roosevelt Avenue was the southern limit of the built-up area in Flushing). The nursery site involved damages to the Prince family who owned the nursery and meant that the depot would be on the southern fringe of the village.

In February 1853 the directors settled on a depot site on the east side of Main Street midway between Northern Boulevard and Thirty-seventh Avenue. The selection of this site raised a storm of objection among Flushingites, particularly because trains would have to cross Lawrence, Hamilton, and Prince Streets, all three thickly populated and lined with houses, in order to reach the depot. When the directors saw the storm they had raised, they rescinded their resolution and voted to adopt the Prince nursery site.

To the great surprise and pleasure of the directors, a large strip of land and considerable frontage on Main Street was freely donated to the company for use as a depot site by William Redwood, owner of a mansion fronting Main Street on what is now Fortieth Road. After prolonged haggling with so many landowners for much less valuable sites along the right of way, it was a pleasure for the directors to meet with such a rare instance of generosity and public spirit! On October 4, 1853