Garden City station (LIRR)

Garden City
The two station houses of Garden City's Long Island Rail Road Station, looking east.
General information
Location	Seventh Street Garden City, New York
Coordinates	40°43′23″N 73°38′24″W / 40.723136°N 73.64007°W / 40.723136; -73.64007
Owned by	Long Island Rail Road
Line(s)	Hempstead Branch
Distance	18.4 mi (29.6 km) from Long Island City[1]
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Connections	Nassau Inter-County Express: n40, n41
Construction
Parking	Yes
Bicycle facilities	Bike Rack
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Fare zone	4
History
Opened	1872 (CRRLI)
Rebuilt	1898
Electrified	May 26, 1908[2] 750 V (DC) third rail
Passengers
2006	1,401[3]
Services
Preceding station Long Island Rail Road Following station Nassau Boulevard toward Penn Station, Grand Central or Atlantic Terminal Hempstead Branch Country Life Press toward Hempstead
Location

Garden City is one of five stations of the Long Island Rail Road that serves the village of Garden City, New York. It is on the Hempstead Branch and is at Seventh Street between Hilton and Cathedral Avenues, directly across the street from the Garden City Hotel. It is one of the few Long Island Rail Road stations with two station houses.

Garden City station was originally built in 1872 by the Central Railroad of Long Island, which was built by Alexander Turney Stewart to bring visitors to the Garden City Hotel. The original station was a typical one-story Victorian structure with a second story over the front door, and a back "porch" over high platforms.^[4] It also included a separate freight house.

The CRRLI merged with the Flushing and North Side Railroad in 1874 to form the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad, only to be acquired by the Long Island Rail Road in 1876. Prior to their acquisition of the FNS&C, the LIRR gave the name "Garden City Station" to Clowesville station along the main line. The LIRR rebuilt it in 1898, and the rebuilt station had eyebrow porch windows along the roof and trolley connections to Mineola-Freeport branch of the New York and Long Island Traction Company. A pedestrian tunnel was added in 1915,^[5] which included an additional trolley along the Central Branch, and a removal of the eyebrow porch windows on the roof of the station house before 1918. High-level platforms were added during the 1970s and a major restoration project took place in the early-21st Century.

Besides standing in the shadow of the Garden City Hotel, Garden City station is also next to the Garden City Public Library. The station has residential parking on both sides of the tracks on 6th and 7th Streets, as well as unrestricted free parking at nearby Stewart Avenue between Hilton & Franklin Avenues, and free parking during off-peak hours along 6th Street near Cathedral Avenue.

The station provides access to the Cathedral of the Incarnation. Built in 1876, it is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and stands just south of the station on Cathedral Avenue.

The station has two high-level side platforms, each 10 cars long.

Platform A, side platform
Track 1	←      Hempstead Branch toward Grand Central Madison, Atlantic Terminal, or Penn Station (Nassau Boulevard)
Track 2	←      Hempstead Branch toward Hempstead (Country Life Press) →
Platform B, side platform

• Media related to Garden City (LIRR station) at Wikimedia Commons
• Garden City – LIRR
• Garden City LIRR timetable
• Garden City Station History (Arrt's Arrchives)
• Unofficial Long Island Railroad History Website
  • 1999 Photos of Westbound^[usurped] and Eastbound^[usurped] station houses
  • 2006 Post-restoration of both station houses^[usurped]
• Station House from Google Maps Street View
• GARDEN Interlocking (The LIRR Today)
• Platforms from Google Maps Street View
• Station House/ Waiting Room from Google Maps Street View (Interior)