RochesterSubway.com : Rochester’s 7th Most Beautiful Train Station in the U.S.

Rochester’s 7th Most Beautiful Train Station in the U.S.

January 7th, 2010

I’m a bit late on this but maybe this will be news to you. Some time last year, a notable infrastructure blog called The Infrastructurist, published a list of the top 10 greatest rail stations ever built. Standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the greatest examples of 20th Century American architecture is Rochester’s NY Central Station. What? You’ve never heard of it? That’s probably because it’s not with us anymore — may she rest in peace. The NY Central Station was demolished in 1965. In it’s place, the pretty little Amtrak Station you know and love today. In fact, all of the buildings on the Infrastructurist’s list are no longer.

The article is verbosely titled Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff Built In Their Place) and it ranks the old Rochester station at #7, just after such famous structures as New York City’s old Penn Station and Chicago’s Grand Central. A few of the stations on the list exist today in much more modest forms but most are now either parking lots or vacant lots. Penn Station, for example, is now mainly a network of underground railroad and subway stations beneath a glass office tower and Madison Square Garden arena. If you walked past the 7th Avenue site today you’d see no remnants of the architectural treasure once described by Senator Daniel Moynihan as “the best thing in our city.”

UPDATE: Infrastructurist.com no longer exists, but you can view an archived version of the old article here .

Likewise, if you’ve ever been to the dingy Amtrak station (shown below) on Central Avenue in downtown Rochester today, you’d probably piss yourself with amazement to learn that this once was a majestic, 4 story, stone building with several high arching windows and a main room that was reminiscent of New York’s Grand Central Station. I apologize for the profanity, but seriously, look at it!

The article by Yonah Freemark and Jebediah Reed explains, “Rochester’s principal train station opened in 1914, with New York Central Railroad connections to New York, Albany, and Buffalo. The elaborate curved brick exterior made a prominent mark on downtown. But the decline in passenger traffic emptied the station by the late 1950s, and the building was razed in 1965. In its place? A parking lot.”

Here’s a little more history on this grand station. In 1854, New York Central Station was constructed on Mill Street at the edge of High Falls where it served as the community’s transportation center for 30 years. In the 1880’s the railroad tracks were elevated and the station was relocated to the east side of the Genesee River (on Central Avenue at St. Paul Street) among the thriving breweries and clothing factories. This second station served New York Central’s needs for just over 20 years, when they decided to build a new station on the north side of Central Avenue, between North Clinton Avenue and Joseph Avenue. A well known New York City architect, Claude Bragdon designed the third station, referred to as Union Station or the Bragdon Station, and it opened in 1914.

But sadly this grandest of stations, busy for four decades, lost most of its passengers to the new interstate system as well as the airlines. The New York Central sold the building in 1959, and the Bragdon Station was demolished in 1965.

I’m not going to run down the rest of the list of demolished stations here. You’ll have to read the article yourself. But I will tell you that Rochester is not alone and is in good company. Cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Memphis, and Atlanta are all noted for the same horrific blunder. I for one hope we’ve learned a lesson. Even if it is a day late.

Tags: Amtrak Station, architecture, blog, Bragdon Station, Central Avenue, Claude Bragdon, downtown Rochester, Grand Central Station, High Falls, history of Rochester, Joseph Avenue, Madison Square Garden, Mill Street, New York, New York Central Railroad, New York City, North Clinton Avenue, NY Central Station, old photos, Penn Station, railroad, Rochester, Rochester history, Rochester NY, Saint Paul Street, Senator Daniel Moynihan, The Infrastructurist, Union Station

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 10:54 pm and is filed under Rochester History, Rochester Images, Train/Railroad Stuff, Transit + Infrastructure, Urban Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

17 Responses to “Rochester’s 7th Most Beautiful Train Station in the U.S.”

Andrew says:

January 7, 2010 at 11:18 pm

I saw this a while ago. Thanks for reminding me of it!
Bob says:

January 8, 2010 at 8:55 am

Utter tragedy.

This now begs the question whether we are a serious and/or mature enough society to ever build anything of that quality again. I don’t consider Syracuse’s intermodal station far north of the city center something to emulate.

I think the best example of new rail station construction is the new Albany-Rensselaer station. I say this only from an architecture standpoint and only by today’s standards. Unfortunately the urbanist treatment is still putrid. It is located ACROSS THE RIVER from downtown Albany and primarily serves parking lots.

Each Rochesterian should travel to Toronto via Amtrak/Via Rail at least once in their life. Now THAT is arriving in a city core!
Jonathan Massey says:

January 8, 2010 at 9:50 am

I dedicated a chapter of my book on Claude Bragdon to the train station–a remarkable building. See _Crystal & Arabesque: Claude Bragdon, Ornament, and Modern Architecture_ (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009).
Patrick Eagan says:

January 8, 2010 at 1:18 pm

I can still remember my first time in the NYC Station with my Aunt for my first train ride. This was probably 1949 and we just took a trip to either Buffalo or Syracuse and back. The high point was lunch on the train in the dining car. I remember taking the train from there when I was at Aquinas for a football game in Erie.

Then the last trip was probably in 1968 when I had to go to Poughkeepsie but the snow kept me from driving. As I recall the station was nothing more than a hallway from the station building left. It was an eventful ride back to Rochester that evening. As we approached Rochester, the conductor told me that they were late and wanted to make up the time before they got to Buffalo. He noted that I was the only passenger getting off in Rochester and he wondered if I cared if the train just slowed down rather than stopping. I was in my late 20’s then so I told them that it was no problem. Not sure I could do it now!
Carlos Mercado says:

January 12, 2010 at 12:53 pm

A downtown train station was the Formal Gateway to a city and also a railroad’s statement to the community of its power and importance. Great architects were engaged to make this statment come alive.

Today, corporations export our jobs to China, pay their executives 450 times the average worker’s wage, and hire draftsmen to draw rectagular glass boxes.

As a child in Philadelphia, I fondly remember the greatness of train stations, movie palaces, department stores and other public spaces. They gave a sesnse of beauty and grandure to all who came, regardless of station in life. We no longer have this, and it has hurt us greatly.
Larry Champoux says:

January 30, 2010 at 12:54 am

Why not have a design competition of a sort for the possible new train station that challenges current architects to design an architectural tribute to Claude Bragdon’s station so that we can properly recall and respect our rail history while meeting the challenges of the future.
admin says:

January 30, 2010 at 11:39 am

Larry, that is a really good idea. The stars have aligned for Rochester and we’re now at a critical decision-making time for this transit station.
1. High-speed rail just became reality
2. RTS is actively hunting for a new downtown site for its bus terminal
3. Trailways & Greyhound are virtually homeless (operating out of a temporary location).
4. In addition, the inner loop—which runs right in front of the Amtrak station—is going to be filled and brought to street level.

This entire section of downtown will look, and function completely different in just 5-10 years time.

If the citizen’s of Rochester don’t make their voices heard right now here’s what will happen: RTS will build its own separate bus terminal somewhere near Main and Clinton, possibly as part of Midtown redevelopment or behind Mortimer. Amtrak will get a modified version of what is already there—with very little consideration for the surrounding area. And if Trailways/Greyhound are not included in the discussion, who knows, they might move to Victor for all we know. So we’ll end up 3 orphaned transit stations (maybe connected a shuttle bus) in 3 desolate locations, just like we had before!

RochesterSubway.com is making this a priority but I’ll need help. I’ve already made a plea to Rich Perrin at the Genesee Transportation Council to consider an inter-modal station. But my plea will fall dead if we don’t take action ourselves. I think a design competition or a design charrette is a great idea because it gets the ball rolling and people involved and invested in the project. I will take this to the RRCDC and see if they can help.

If anyone has ideas or would like to get involved please contact me.
Stephen Trinder says:

November 3, 2013 at 1:39 am

Could you put up a list of the other demolished stations? The article doesn’t exist anymore. Thanks.
RochesterSubway.com says:

November 3, 2013 at 8:50 am

Ok, we’ve had several people point out that the Infrastructurist web site no longer exists. You can view an archived version of the old article here .

Thanks to http://www.Archive.org
Ruth Nederlk says:

November 15, 2013 at 4:58 pm

Yes it was a beautiful train station. Many Soldiers and sailors used it during the second world war.
Daniel Mossien says:

June 10, 2014 at 11:47 am

What a waste of a marvelous piece of architecture. I used to go to the station to pick up my grandmother in my younger days and my neck still hurts from looking up at the true craftsmanship of the day.
Jeanette Wojtas says:

September 18, 2014 at 12:51 pm

I too remember that beautiful place. (The Palace Theatre was another demo blunder.) My uncles owned and ran the restaurant across from the station….”Terminal Restaurant”, across the street on the triangle that today houses a shabby bus terminal.
Richard Long says:

January 28, 2015 at 3:03 am

Has everyone forgotten the period between demolition of the stone building and erection of the beautiful tin shack we have today when a temporary structure existed at the West end attached to one of the old tunnels leading to the tracks?

The RR must have spent all of 57¢ on that piece of architecture which lasted a couple years. Of course that was in the time before access had to be provided for handicapped people.
ccityplanner12 says:

August 24, 2015 at 7:01 am

In many places in Britain, you used to be (& in some places still are) able to to sit on a train knowing that you were to arrive in your home town in something like this in a few hours: https://youtu.be/r0nrpkfFock
(ignore the horrible J-Pop)
Peter O'Connor says:

November 2, 2015 at 12:47 pm

I remember leaving the Bragdon Station with my older brother on the night of July 24th,1964. We arrived there early and had the opportunity to wander around the cavernous structure.The strangest thing though happened when we were pulling out of the station. We were on our way to New York City to see the worlds fair. As we headed east towards New York I looked out the window and saw gangs of of people running down Joseph Avenue with police cars and fire trucks in between. We woke up at the Americana Hotel the next day turning on the television We were surprised to see a Rochester news anchor Tom Decker on New York City TV. The big story was all about the riots in Rochester New York. We went to the worlds fair had a great time but when we return to Rochester and got out at the station we were surprised to see armed National Guard on the streets. Needless to say it was a trip that I shall never forget and etched the image of the railroad station forever in my mind .
Rochester's (inspiring) Old Railroad Stations - Reconnect Rochester works to promote transportation choices that enable a more vibrant and equitable community in the Rochester, NY region. says:

March 20, 2016 at 11:37 pm

[…] the grandest of all of Rochester’s stations. Last year Infrastructurist.com declared it the 7th most beautiful station to fall to the wrecking ball. Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Rooselvelt, Harry […]
Bob Reuter says:

June 5, 2019 at 11:08 am

I came to Rochester in 1972 to work for Xerox. I am a rail fan so in my touring about in the early 70s I noticed the remaining section of what was the Bragdon Station and wondered why the most splendid part had been torn down and the remaining piece left standing alone like an old office building. Even at about 30, I still was naïve enough to feel that there could be no reason sufficient to largely destroy such an irreplaceable marvel. Someone finally explained that it was done by NYCRR to reduce tax payments on the property; but, they suggested blame resting with the City for not giving the Railroad a break. I guess the Rochester property tax department may have something to answer for in the loss of the original of this structure. I was very happy to see that even if smaller a replica was being built and, now, has been built.

On a similar subject, there was an old warehouse on the short street that became the site of the Convention Center that was also demolished which saddened me. It saddened me because the human effort that went into building the thick, red brick walls to about four stories could never be duplicated. I felt it should have been left standing as a tribute to the great efforts that went into building formidable structures before the days of structural steel and concrete which, of course, is what was used to build the Convention Center. It was apparently necessary to (1) have the Convention Center and (2) build it without consideration for the historical significance of what had to be demolished. On lunch breaks, I watched the wrecking ball knock down the carefully crafted six-or-eight-brick thick walls killing what was a humble but heroically built structure. For anybody who may remember it, it was painted green and was right on the river. Reading the current feelings about the Bragdon Station I am relieved that there are people who do care about the irreplaceability of these buildings.
In New York City I was present during the demolition of Penn Station yet, because at that time I was entering and exiting underground, I was not fully aware of the horror of what was going on. Finally, about 55 years later, the effort to emulate the grandeur of the original station by modifying its sister building, the Farley Post Office, to become the Moynihan Station as a tribute to its champion is underway with enough support to actually complete it. I feel better about that, too.

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Rochester’s 7th Most Beautiful Train Station in the U.S.

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