Re: (erielack) Benson Street Station Sold

["Gary R. Kazin" <gkazin_@_yahoo.com>]

I found it in the Ledger:

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/essex/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1245863112128840.xml&coll=1

Restorers purchase Glen Ridge station
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Philip Read
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

The boarded-up Benson Street Train Station in Glen Ridge has been sold for $150,100 -- $100 over the asking price -- marking a turning point to save the historic Tudor-style building on the abandoned railroad track.

Mayor Peter Hughes said he was "absolutely delighted" by the sale.

"What a mess. That has been an eyesore for so long. I'm very pleased," he said.

NJ Transit spokesman Joe Dee said yesterday that the agency has sealed a deal for its only train station on the market, closing last Thursday on the sale of the circa-1883 station to Richard and Edna Moriarty of Glen Ridge, who submitted the higher of two bids for the landmark.

The buyers could not be reached yesterday, but Dan Murphy, the president of the borough's Historic Preservation Commission, knew of their reputation.

"They restored a house on Woodland Avenue, just a remarkable restoration," Murphy said. "Frankly, they didn't need any supervision from us. They did a stunning renovation of a beautiful home. I certainly expect the same."

As it is now, the station is the ultimate fixer-upper, boarded up and covered with torn sheets of tarp that conceal its gaping holes and leaning chimney in want of simple mortar.

Jennifer Strikowsky has had a bird's-eye view of the station from her Clinton Road home since 2002, when NJ Transit ended service on the line.

"We moved in the weekend after the last train ran," she said. "You have to imagine what it looked like. It's a beautiful building."

Last year, Glen Ridge's borough council designated the station, damaged in a fire years ago, as an "area in need of redevelopment," as a step to adopt a plan tailor-made for the location, now zoned residential and surrounded by a neighborhood of Colonial homes.

"We sought to clear the deck. We're open to a number of suggestions," Hughes said of potential uses. "We're really not looking for a restaurant in there ... but again we're going to see what they come to us with."

Jim Wilson -- a boyhood train aficionado who grew up to be a conductor and then the owner of a small Passaic railway with five engines, 1.8 miles of track and a Pullman "club car" -- once had a long-term lease on the station.

There, he maintained a small museum and served coffee to commuters before the NJ Transit line was idled in 2002, and even after a fire left the station badly damaged. Glen Ridge had tried unsuccessfully to secure a grant to help Wilson reclaim it. His lease was terminated more than two years ago, NJ Transit said, clearing the way for a sale.

The 20-by-50-foot station sits on a very irregular half-acre lot and alongside tracks still used by an occasional freight train.

In 1984, the station, the handiwork of English architect Maurice B. Adams, was listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places as a rare surviving example of the English cottage architectural style.

According to the NJ Transit bid documents, any physical changes would need to be reviewed by the State Historic Preservation Office and the New Jersey Historic Sites Council, not to mention the Glen Ridge Historic Preservation Commission and local planning and zoning boards.

Yesterday morning, workers carried an old wooden swivel chair, charred window frames and plastic bags of debris out of the station, loading the discards into the back of two commercial vans. 392-1851.

Gary R. Kazin
DL&W Milepost R35.7
Rockaway, New Jersey


      

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