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Left for Dead: Rochester’s Union Depot

November 9th, 2012

Rochester's NY Central (Bragdon) Station half demolished, c.1970? [PHOTO VIA: John R. Stewart]
I know I keep coming back to this over and over and over again. But I just can’t believe we intentionally reduced this once world-class rail station to rubble only so we could pay tens of millions 50 years later in an attempt external link to build a much smaller and less impressive imitation of what we once had.

I’m not going to say much more about it. I just wanted to share these recently found photos of Rochester’s half-demolished NY Central (Bragdon) Station. Like a decapitated, rotting corpse left to rot in public as a reminder of a brutal ‘auto’cracy. Most of the building was torn down in the 1960’s but one section stood like this for over a decade before it was finally removed altogether and replaced with the current Amtrak building in the mid to late 70’s. Oy, how painful…

Rochester's NY Central (Bragdon) Station interior.
This is what the interior of the station looked like in its glory days (above). And this is what we did to it…

Rochester's NY Central (Bragdon) Station half demolished, c.1970? [PHOTO VIA: John R. Stewart]

Rochester's NY Central (Bragdon) Station half demolished, c.1970? [PHOTO VIA: John R. Stewart]

Rochester's NY Central (Bragdon) Station half demolished, c.1970? [PHOTO VIA: Christopher Playford]

Rochester's NY Central (Bragdon) Station half demolished, c.1970? [PHOTO VIA: Christopher Playford]

Rochester's NY Central (Bragdon) Station half demolished, c.1970? [PHOTO VIA: Christopher Playford]

Rochester's NY Central (Bragdon) Station half demolished, c.1970? [PHOTO VIA: Christopher Playford]

Rochester's NY Central (Bragdon) Station, 1914. [PHOTO: Albert R. Stone]
Would it not have been better to leave this station to rot indefinitely? At least the possibility of restoration would still exist. As in Buffalo where the Central Station Restoration Corporation external link has been slowly but steadily working toward restoring their once grand NY Central Terminal.

Rochester's NY Central (Bragdon) Station, birdseye view.
Mr. Bragdon, we are so unworthy!!

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 9th, 2012 at 8:04 am and is filed under Rochester History, Train/Railroad Stuff, Transit + Infrastructure, Urban Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

13 Responses to “Left for Dead: Rochester’s Union Depot”

  1. Christine says:

    Presumably the Bragdon plans still exist. Why couldn’t we resurrect them, update them with contemporary conveniences and technology, ensure ADA accessibility, and rebuild what once was wonderful?

  2. Wonderful idea Christine! What a tribute to Mr. Bragdon and our rich architectural history.

  3. @Christine, we actually did bring this exact idea to the table early on in the scoping process. It was not seriously considered because to rebuild the same structure today we’d be talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

    We’re looking at a budget of $22 Million (maybe less) to complete the new station. That doesn’t build much in the way of “grand” anymore.

  4. L.Eric says:

    What’s needed is to replace some of the station tracks. So we would have a place to make up trains. Add cars, and have emergency equipment. Place for private passenger cars, special trains. A place to do business! Also Amtrak plans to scrap older cars. When the few new cars come must be stopped. We don’t have enough cars now. The railroads, never did this. They kept older cars for holiday rushes extras, emergencys.

  5. phendee says:

    Unfortunately, over the years, our great city of Rochester, NY has lost so much due to mismanagement and sell outs. The Subway was sold out to Detroit for buses and cars. What we were left with is the inter loop. Durand Eastman Park has deteriated to such a point, it too will soon completely disappear into historical photos. The beautiful train station probably left us for similar reasons. As a result, these “Grand” parts of Rochester are gone for good. It cost too much money in todays’ dollars to get them back. Embrace the memories.

  6. Eric says:

    Yes, we can only afford to rebuild railroad stations in the middle east. Like Iraq, after the army and others have blown them up,time and time again. But not Rochester. Or any other American city. The middle east is useing our cars to build their new rail systems. They just don’t want them here.

  7. T$ says:

    Look up St Paul’s Union Depot. After 40 yearz of sitting vacant, it had found new life as multi-modal transit hit for Amtrak, Jefferson Bus, Greyhound, and Metro Transit. These beautiful stations are worth saving!

  8. Matthew T. Costello says:

    I recently traveled to Albany and even though Syracuse and Albany are much smaller cities than Rochester, their RR stations were way more impressive than ours which is pretty much a backyard tool shed with a few vending machines, the other cities actually have restaurants in their stations

  9. Bob Reuter says:

    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.

  10. Richard Luckin says:

    I’m in the process of producing a PBS program, “The Railroad Station in American Life.” I would like use one of your images of the station in the 60s-70s before it was torn down. I will credit your organization. I grew up in Rochester and took the train when you had to wait in the downstairs tunnel before boarding the train. I look forward to your reply.

  11. Hi Richard. Please click on the images to see what the appropriate photo credit should be. Thanks.


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