Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/29

The Flushing R.R.'s Early Years and large numbers of funerals and mourners constantly passed this way. Flushing Railroad patrons, preferring to be ticketed through to Brooklyn rather than New York, changed here at Penny Bridge station to the Calvary line of omnibuses, which carried them down Meeker Avenue and Grand Street to the Grand Street Ferry in Williamsburgh. The through fare for this route came to only 18¾¢ (counting the ⅛¢ Civil War Federal Travel Tax).

The final stop, Hunter's Point, was simply a transfer station from rail to boat. The company had built an embankment at the water's edge out into deeper water, where piling commenced and supported a wharf extending out into the river. The depot, according to a disgruntled correspondent, was "a cheap, comfortless, painted shanty, entirely open at each side and end," and chilling in cold weather. The correspondent goes on to say that "only a few minutes are allowed for the mutual transfer of passengers, no warning bell is rung, and not a few passengers are sometimes left behind." From this wharf either the Island City or the Enoch Dean ferried the patrons to the Fulton Street slip on the Manhattan side.

At the time of the opening of the road there were only three station buildings; the open one at Hunter's Point, one at Winfield, and the most substantial one at Flushing. In September 1854 the West Flushing Land Co. erected a "Gothic" station at 108th Street for the use of their villagers. The result of this move was to create two stations in the Corona area only three blocks apart, one for the National Race Course and one for the villagers. This situation continued for as long as the race course remained active.

On January 15, 1855 the Flushing R.R. announced the opening of a new stop at Maspeth at what is now Fifth-eighth Street & Fifty-fourth Drive. Maspeth Village, about a half mile to the south, was developed in 1852–53, again by speculators who bought out the former farms and laid out building lots. Although the population was extremely small at first, the railroad did not wish to neglect any opportunity for possible revenues.

The next depot building to go up, of which we have record, was that at National Course in March 1855. The lack of ticket selling facilities and shelter was an inconvenience to the race crowds and the depot was built to overcome this handicap.