(rshsdepot) Maywood, NJ

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

'Next stop, Maywood!'

Volunteers rally to restore Bergen County railroad station


Friday, October 10, 2003


BY ANA M. ALAYA
Star-Ledger Staff

More than 100 years ago, passengers waited for Hoboken-bound trains in the
small Victorian-style train station in Maywood, warming their hands before a
potbellied stove as the stationmaster punched their 50-cent round-trip
tickets.

Standing on the platform at the station today, one can almost hear the clack
of the wheels hitting the track and the conductor shouting over the steam
engine whistle, "Next stop, Maywood!"

The station, like many others in New Jersey, almost faded away, until an
unlikely group of history buffs, rail aficionados, carpenters, architects
and accountants saved it from the bulldozer.

A little over a year after a small army of volunteers in the Bergen County
town launched an effort to save the dilapidated train station, one of the
oldest in the state, the renovation of the 131-year-old Maywood Avenue
building is about halfway done.

"We want to keep the historical theme, with the historical context of about
the turn-of-the-century early development of Maywood, which centered around
this station," said Ed Kaminski, a rail and history buff who spearheaded the
renovation.

Kaminski, a salesman for ACF Industries, a manufacturer of railroad cars in
Saddle Brook and a Maywood resident, stepped in to save the station last
year just days before its scheduled demolition. After the renovation is
complete, his group, the Maywood Station Historical Society, a division of
the New York Susquehanna and Western Technical and Historical Society, plans
to create a railroad artifact museum that will be open to the public several
times a year.

"There's also plans to have steam-powered excursion trains once again grace
the rails," Kaminski said.

More and more old train stations are being restored in northern New Jersey,
where the railroad played a significant role in industrial and residential
development, bringing prospective families and business owners from
Pennsylvania and upstate New York, say preservation experts.

Terry Karschner, supervising historic preservation specialist for the New
Jersey Historic Preservation Office, called the Maywood effort a "success
story." The station will soon join a growing number of stations restored to
their past glory, including those in Park Ridge, Glen Ridge and Short Hills.

"This station was one of the earliest on the line and an important surviving
example from the earliest period of that rail line," Karschner said. "It has
regenerated an interest in the town of Maywood and its history."

In granting the station historic status, Karschner's office noted that the
small classic suburban station, with its Carpenter Gothic features, exposed
trusses, rafters, and "stick work" patterns, embodies one of the earliest
examples of such development still standing in New Jersey.

The Maywood station had languished from years of disrepair since it was last
used by the Veterans of Foreign Wars as a meeting hall in the early 1990s.

"The volunteers have put a lot of hours and their hearts into preserving
it," said Walter Rich, president and CEO of the New York Susquehanna and
Western Railroad, which has owned the station for more than 100 years.

The company, which supports the renovation, stopped running passenger cars
on the Maywood line in 1966 and runs only freight service now. It is leasing
the structure to the group for $10 a year.

Every Wednesday, volunteers gather at the station. They have built a new
roof, stripped several layers of stucco off the exterior walls, repainted,
and restored the ticket window and a large bay window, among other things.

"It's a labor of love," said Thomas Fenniman, an architect who grew up in
Maywood and specializes in historic preservation. He fondly remembers going
to the station every day to see his father off to work.

"There was also a debate about whether we should rip out the pine wood
walls," Fenniman said. "But even though the wood is in rough condition, we
decided to keep it. There's a quality and character you can't duplicate.
It's an old look."

When news of the renovation began to spread, people started bringing some of
the antique furniture that once graced the station and had been given away
or sold when the station closed, including the original potbellied stove and
the stationmaster's desk.

Workers also found old liquor bottles, spikes and tickets from the early
1900s with passengers' signatures.

"We're going to put a lot of that stuff on display for the public," said
George Haag, a Maywood contractor who donated services and materials. "After
we finish the building, we plan to continue our work. Maybe we'll restore a
caboose."

Kaminski said he has raised about $68,000 in donations toward the estimated
$400,000 renovation cost, much of which is being picked up through in-kind
services.

Maywood Councilman Tom Richards, who flattened pennies on the rails as a
young boy, is one of the project's biggest supporters, even though he signed
the demolition order. He said he's glad Kaminski's group stepped in to save
the station.

"This station helped build Maywood," said Richards. "When it was built,
Maywood had 13 families. By 1894, when the line opened from Stroudsburg,
Pa., everything boomed."

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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