The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, Part Two: The Flushing, North Shore & Central Railroad/Chapter 5
CHAPTER V
A Rival Road Takes Shape
THE CIVIL WAR YEARS, as we have set forth in an earlier chapter, saw the gradual deterioration of the New York & Flushing R.R. An absentee ownership, unfamiliar with railroad management and wholly indifferent to the welfare of the traveling public, sent a succession of managers to run the road on a minimal budget, and the inevitable result over the years was a deterioration in the physical plant and a lamentable falling off in the quality of service.
The people of Flushing were not ones to take this indifference to their legitimate interests lightly. Sympathetic and patient at first to the lapses of the road, they gradually realized that the true owners were interested solely in pocketing the earnings of the railroad and getting their dividends regularly. How the trains ran, or indeed, if they ran at all, were of little or no concern to the owners. Once before the people of Flushing had rebelled against conditions on their railroad in the days of Oliver Charlick in 1859–60. When the physical condition of the cars and engines worsened again and schedules became increasingly undependable during the war years, Flushingites again took the initiative. While the number of daily commuters was small—estimates vary between 80 and 200—there were enough men of means to consider the establishment of a rival road, to be owned and operated by Flushingites, that would break the New York & Flushing R.R.'s monopoly.
As early as February 1863 there was talk of building new roads that would branch off from the Long Island R.R. One scheme called for a road that would branch off at Newtown, parallel Jackson Avenue to Flushing, and go from there to College Point and Whitestone. In March bills were introduced into the Legislature incorporating this route. Another scheme called for a road that would branch off at Woodside and then parallel Jackson Avenue to Flushing. This route was examined by engineers and the probable cost ascertained. In June the survey of the road was completed and there were shrewd guesses that Oliver Charlick was behind it. Four weeks passed and there were reports that the map of the new road had been filed, stock sold, and materials ordered. By December the hand of Oliver Charlick was clearly discernible and many believed that with such a backer, the road would become a reality.
With the new year of 1864, the fog that had enshrouded the activities of the new railroad suddenly lifted with the public announcement of the formal organization of the road. On February 24, 1864 the articles of association of the Woodside & Flushing Railroad were filed with the Secretary of State, and the slate of officers and directors published. The names included some of the most solid and wealthy men of Flushing; although the name of Oliver Charlick did not appear in print, it was obvious that he was a partner in the project, since the Woodside & Flushing would join his own Long Island R.R. at Woodside, and be run as a branch of the larger road.
The books of the company were immediately opened to subscription and the stock sold surprisingly well all during the spring months. As early as March 1, all but $20,000 of the capital stock was subscribed, and by the end of May, all the Flushing and Newtown proportions were fully subscribed. Provision was made even at this early stage for depot sites, for in May the officers leased a store on the southwest corner of Northern Boulevard and Prince Street for a station with the privilege of purchasing within a year. From Williamsburgh influential propertied men came in the hope of inducing the officers to build to the vicinity of North Twelfth Street, Brooklyn, an empty open area on the East River suitable for a deep water terminus.
Measures were taken early to insure the most important piece of construction on the road: the trestle and drawbridge over Flushing Creek. It was necessary to secure permission from the Legislature to cross a navigable waterway, and when the hearings opened, certain unidentified interests hiding behind the names of other persons and corporate bodies campaigned against the project. Covert opposition to the measure continued even after the bill passed both houses, but it was finally signed by the governor in April.
In June 1864 the officers and directors of the new road met with their opposite numbers on the Long Island R.R. and reached complete agreement on the terms of the proposed lease and the details of operation. This time Oliver Charlick and some of the principal directors of the Long Island R.R. were elected to the board of the Woodside & Flushing road.
The summer of 1864 was wholly devoted to acquisition of the right-of-way through what is now Jackson Heights and Corona. The engineer of the road, Mr. Towle, undertook three different surveys and presented them to the board of directors who, in a meeting on August 1, selected what became known as the "Leverich route," because it crossed the Leverich estate north of Elmhurst Avenue and west of Junction Avenue. As various owners of land were approached by the road's agents for a righ-tof-way, they generally yielded their holdings without bickering or agreed to submit honest differences of opinion to a board of arbitrators. The directors could not help marveling at their good fortune and attributed the general spirit of cooperation to a keen desire to put an end to intolerable conditions on the New York & Flushing road.
In the late fall of 1864 the first physical work was begun on the new railroad. The contract to grade the first portion westward from the meadows was awarded to the Flushing contractor, Mr. John Higgins, who set to work on September 19. During the late fall days a second gang began work on an embankment across the meadows. On December 1, 1864 Mr. Zachariah Roe, the leading Flushing bridge and dock contractor, received the contract to build the draw across Flushing Creek.
Winter forced a halt in the proceedings but not for long. In March 1865 gangs of workmen were distributed along the right-of-way through Woodside and Winfield. The contractor was handicapped by a scarcity in the supply of labor, but the work went on so well that by the end of May the section through Woodside and Winfield was all graded. The months of July, August and September 1865 were a period of exceptional activity and accomplishment. Additional workmen were placed on the job and rapid progress was made all along the line. By September fifty to seventy men were at work and the western end of the road was ready for the track. There was a brief strike of the work force in September but this was speedily adjusted.
During the same season Zachariah Roe began work in earnest on the Flushing Creek drawbridge. Timbers were unloaded in April and in May the bridge was well under way. By the end of May the piles were all driven and the caps placed, while the draw itself was well advanced. Five more weeks of labor saw the virtual completion of the drawbridge.
Just as things were going fairly smoothly, the board of directors made a fatal error. Up to this point notices of location of the route had been served on all the landowners, and none applied to change such location, and the time within which they could apply was suffered to lapse. Then, on July 1, 1865, the directors at a full meeting voted with but one dissenting voice to change a portion of the location of the route in the vicinity of Junction Avenue, believing that the route could be improved thereby. On August 17 a new map was filed. By this proceeding the question of location was opened again, and the company was required to secure a location in the same manner as if such new route had been adopted in the first instance. The landowners this time did not let the matter pass by default, but within fifteen days after notice of location had been served upon them, applied to a judge of the Supreme Court who appointed a commission to examine the route with power to alter the same.
After holding several public hearings the commissioners determined to alter the route and filed their report about October 25, locating the road through the Fashion Course. The manner of conducting these proceedings was such as to raise grave doubts as to their regularity, so the company petitioned the courts for a ruling, and the Fashion Course route was upheld, but this decision did not come until June of 1866, causing months of delay and uncertainty.
It was said at the time that part of the pressure on the Woodside & Flushing R.R. to adopt the Fashion Race Course route came from the desire of many of the influential citizens and officials to get rid of the race track. Many people in Newtown felt that it was a blot on the neighborhood, attracting an unsavory element from New York, and the routing of the railroad through the grounds seemed an ideal opportunity to get rid of the course.
As a result of all the legal uncertainty, little tangible work was done on the road during the 1866 season. Workmen put the finishing touches to the western end of the route, and the route east of the disputed Fashion Course in February and March. Meantime, the rails and wheels for the cars, ordered in May of 1864, arrived on the scene, and were stocked at a dump near the present Willett's Point Boulevard on the meadows edge.
With the spring of 1867the directors of the Woodside & Flushing R.R. energetically renewed the struggle to get the road completed and opened. On February 11, at a directors' meeting, it was resolved to adopt the Fashion Race Course route as confirmed by the courts. This meant that commissioners would have to be appointed to appraise the land taken from the Leveriches whose estate was located immediately west of the Fashion Course.
In the hope that all the legal roadblocks were about to be cleared away, the directors issued a call on March 5 for immediate payment of 70% of the stock subscribed to make possible immediate resumption of work, and to pay for work already done. As of April 1, $50,000 had been already spent on the road and $20,000 more was needed to pay for the right-of-way. In the first two weeks of April 1867, laborers were again set to work on the uncompleted eastern end of the route, and more than a mile of right-of-way through the Leverich estate and Fashion Course secured. Work went on busily all through May and June, including minor alterations to the Flushing Creek drawbridge.
Just when it seemed that no further foreseeable obstacles could arise to prevent an early completion of the road, the public and the directors of the Woodside & Flushing were alike astounded by the announcement in mid-July that Oliver Charlick of the Long Island R.R. had successfully bought out the New York & Flushing R.R. at a reputed price of $300,000. What had begun as a rumor was confirmed when on Saturday, July 13, 1867, Oliver Charlick took formal possession of the road.
The implications of this maneuver were far-reaching. The South Side R.R., which had been dickering with the old New York & Flushing to lease or purchase terminal space at Long Island City, was effectively shut out of an East River terminus. Worse still, it was immediately obvious to everyone in Flushing that Charlick, having once gotten the New York & Flushing into his possession, would not stand by and permit a competing road to be built that might spoil his investment. As was expected, Charlick immediately notified the directors of the Flushing & Woodside R.R. that their road was no longer necessary and would receive no further support from him, because, under his management, the old New York & Flushing would now be revitalized and operated in a manner to give the service and satisfaction that the new road had been intended to secure.
The reaction of the directors and investors of the Woodside & Flushing R.R. varied from bewilderment to fury. The people of Flushing were in general disappointed, for they had been led to believe that two competing roads into the village would keep down fares and stimulate good service in a bid for patronage. Others were alarmed at having fallen into the clutches of Oliver Charlick, reputed to be a shrewd manipulator, and who, for the moment at least, enjoyed a monopoly of rail travel on Long Island. It is possible that Charlick's motives in engineering this coup were of the best; he doubtless saw in it the double advantage of ridding himself of two potential rivals, the New York & Flushing and the South Side R.R., and may sincerely have intended to give Flushing the quality service it sought. However, the investors who had subscribed to stock in the Woodside & Flushing R.R. failed to see any motives of benevolence in Charlick's act, and viewed his apparent interest in their road simply as a trick by which he frightened the management of the New York & Flushing into selling their road to himself.
Their indignation might have spent itself in impotence had not the times and circumstances offered a means of redress. North of Flushing lay the two new and growing communities of College Point and Whitestone. College Point owed its existence virtually to one man, Conrad Poppenhusen. Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1818, he came to America in 1843, and immediately opened a factory on Kent Avenue, Williamsburgh, manufacturing combs, brushes, buttons, etc. from whalebone. When hard rubber became practical in the 1850's, Poppenhusen adopted that product, and in 1854 moved his factory to the farm and woodland area of College Point. Within a few years he built not only a great brick India Rubber factory, but also company houses, stores, streets and a host of other improvements, so that it could be truly said that College Point was Poppenhusen's single-handed creation. The factory prospered enormously and enriched its owner. New settlers, attracted by the prosperity of the village, flocked to College Point, and by 1875 it boasted a population of 2,723.
In the adjacent village of Whitestone a somewhat similar situation obtained. John J. Locke had begun his tinware manufactory in Brooklyn in November 1827, and seeking room for expansion, moved to the unsettled spaces of Whitestone in 1854. The Locke tinware manufactory gradually grew to be the largest by the late 60's, and Locke, like his neighbor Poppenhusen, devoted himself to public improvements. The village grew rapidly and by 1875 had a population of 2,500.
When the directors and investors behind the Woodside & Flushing R.R. recovered from the blow dealt them by Charlick, they sought out Conrad Poppenhusen and John Locke, both well-known capitalists and both with a reputation for being actively interested in civic improvement. Both men gave serious consideration to the railroad project, and after some thought decided not only to lend their backing to completion of the railroad, but to extend it to their own communities. Both College Point and Whitestone were large villages by the standards of that day and up to this time were wholly dependent on antiquated stage coaches for connection with Flushing and the outside world. Bringing the railroad to both villages would not only give them the prestige of rail facilities that meant so much at that date, but would vastly increase the value of the extensive tracts of real estate which both owned by making the area accessible. Another possible consideration was the prospect of ready shipment of the output of both Poppenhusen's and Locke's factories to market by rail instead of by water or wagon teams.
In February 1868 the-stockholders of the Woodside & Flushing R.R. convened and elected as president Orange Judd, and as secretary Elizur B. Hinsdale. Both men were dynamic Flushingites, and energetically dedicated themselves to the completion of the projected road. Orange Judd was born upstate in 1822, went to college in Connecticut, and in 1853 removed to New York where he became editor of the American Agriculturalist. From 1854 to 1863 he was also agricultural editor of the New York Times. In 1866 he was in a position to buy out the American Agriculturalist, and by his untiring efforts, saw its circulation rise to 100,000. It was at this point in his career that he began to interest himself in railroad affairs, and probably owing to his civic prominence at the time, was elected president by the board of directors.
Elizur B. Hinsdale was born upstate in 1831 and studied law college. In 1862 he came to New York from Buffalo to practice law. Hinsdale lived in a house on the north side of Northern Boulevard east of Parsons Avenue; with his law background and his youth he doubtless made a good secretary for the new organization. Neither Poppenhusen nor Locke were represented on the board of directors, but were the main backers of the project nevertheless.
One of the first acts of the newly reorganized Woodside & Flushing R.R. was to change the name of the corporation. On April 3, 1868, the road was re-incorporated as The Flushing & North Side Railroad Company and its charter authorized a line of road from Hunter's Point to Roslyn and from Flushing to Whitestone. The Legislature also authorized a new drawbridge over Flushing Creek to replace the creaky old New York & Flushing bridge. The company also petitioned to absorb all the rights and privileges of the original Woodside & Flushing R.R. This latter petition was not passed by the State Senate until February 1869.
Sometime in May 1868 Orange Judd bought some valuable dock property on the East River for a future depot. Early in June land was bought on Lawrence Street for a right-of-way; negotiations were on foot for the future site of Bridge Street depot on the north side of Northern Boulevard. By mid-June the contractor to build the road had been selected: Gaynor, Lord and Carroll, who built the Morris & Essex R.R. in New Jersey and others. The completion date for construction of the road from Hunter's Point through Woodside to Flushing was set at October 15 and the contractor agreed to a forfeit of $100 a day for failure to meet the agreed-upon date for completion.
By the end of June, 100 laborers were already at work in the vicinity of Sunnyside, and 200 to 300 more were to be put on the following week. In July the contract to build the pile work on the Newtown side of the Flushing meadows was awarded to Zachariah Roe, a well-known Flushing contractor. On July 15 an enthusiastic public meeting was held at College Point and liberal subscriptions were made toward the road. Ten acres of the colonial Lawrence estate were purchased by Conrad Poppenhusen or a track yard and depot.
The one and only recorded instance of an injunction being issued against construction work occurred in July when a stockholder obtained a temporary stay against driving piles on the Flushing meadows. This did not prevent the work from going on along the right-of-way from Hunter's Point to College Point where gangs of men toiled at numerous points. In the last week of July ties were being unloaded at Flushing Creek and the first installment of rails due the following week. Finally, in the second week of August the first two locomotives were completed and delivered; they were named, predictably, the College Point and the Whitestone.
At this point in the construction work another surprise was sprung on the public. When Oliver Charlick took over the old New York & Flushing in July 1867, he naturally assumed that his acquisition of the road effectively ended the ambitions of the Woodside & Flushing people. When he discovered that the road was not a dead-letter after all, but actively under contract, and with the backing of powerful capitalists besides, he realized that his New York & Flushing R.R. would prove to be a liability. To rehabilitate it would cost a great deal of money and even then it could not compete with a rival boasting new engines, new cars, a new roadbed and a youthful management. After a few months of soul-searching Charlick made overtures to the rival road, suggesting that the New York & Flushing might be purchased very reasonably. Within a year the tables had turned completely.
The motives of the Flushing & North Side R.R. people, in agreeing to Charlick's proposition, were not difficult to guess. Possession of a completed, operating railroad would mean that only three miles of their own road would need to be built, namely, from a point on the Flushing meadows to Whitestone. At the Hunter's Point end there was already a terminal, although the New York & Flushing was presently using the Long Island R.R.'s depot under a lease.
On Tuesday, August 11, 1868 the Woodside & Flushing people entered into formal possession of the old New York & Flushing property, the rumored price being $500,000. Many people in Hunter's Point, Woodside and West Flushing were alarmed at the purchase, realizing that the original right-of-way, now largely graded, would not be built on after all, and their newly acquired real estate become valueless overnight. The company issued a statement stating that the purchase would in no way interfere with the completion of the original right-of-way, which was all paid for and graded. Significantly, however, the workmen were withdrawn from the right-of-way between Hunter's Point and Flushing meadows, and concentrated all along the College Point-Whitestone section. Months and years were to pass before the original roadbed would be completed and used.
At a meeting of the railroad directors it was decided to build the Whitestone-College Point line as soon as possible, and connect it to the newly acquired New York & Flushing line at a point on the meadows to be known as Whitestone Junction; secondly, that the New York & Flushing track to Winfield should be used, and that from this point an entirely new line to Hunter's Point should be constructed, just north of and exactly paralleling the Long Island R.R. track from Winfield through Woodside to Hunter's Point. Thirdly, that the section of the old New York & Flushing R.R. from Winfield to Hunter's Point via Maspeth should be abandoned and returned to the New York & Flushing stockholders to dispose of as they saw fit, together with the old New York & Flushing dock property at Hunter's Point. This was an extensive and belated change of plans, quite different from the plan laid down in April when the Flushing & North Side R.R. organized.
The motives behind this change of plans are not entirely clear from the distance of 100 years; grading and constructing four miles of new line from Hunter's Point to Winfield could not have been cheap, and there was the further expenditure of half a million for the New York & Flushing road. On the other hand the management gained possession of the road from Flushing to Great Neck, and the elimination of a competing line.
Work was now redoubled on the roadbed to finish it as soon as possible; the management meanwhile undertook the operation of trains on the old New York & Flushing route until the road could be integrated into its own new system. On September 15, 1868 the Flushing & North Side placed its first locomotive, the College Point into service, carrying ties and rails for the construction gangs. In November, just as everything was going smoothly, the road sustained another setback. On November 18, the contractors, Gaynor, Lord & Carroll received their allotment of $6,000 as usual to meet the weekly payroll and in some unknown manner, one of the superintendents stole the money and decamped for parts unknown. As a result the laborers and other creditors were left unpaid and the contractors were compelled to forfeit the contract. The event caused quite some excitement locally, for numerous boarding houses and saloons depended on the weekly payroll quite as much as the laborers. The board of directors hastily renegotiated the contract with a very reliable local man, John Higgins.
Beginning with the new year 1869, the company purchased 150 tons of new iron for the road into Long Island City, began work on building a way depot at Woodside, and put into service several handsome new passenger coaches. Meanwhile, the train schedule on the old New York & Flushing route was tightened up and additional trains added for rush hour and late night travel. In February work began on a terminal building at Long Island City on the site of an oil factory that had burnt down the previous fall.
With the return of fine spring weather in 1869 intensive work resumed all along the road. Conrad Poppenhusen himself stepped in as president in April to personally supervise the work, and Orange Judd did the same in the post of vice-president. On April 26 contractor Roe began driving piles on the meadow from the new Whitestone Junction to the Woodside & Flushing R.R. drawbridge over the creek. On May 16 one of the small "jobbing" locomotives, the Uncle Tom while being transported from one section of track to another, toppled into Flushing Creek, inconveniencing the track gangs and draining manpower from the road for salvage operations. A week later the eight-ton engine was hoisted from the mud and the $300 worth of damages repaired.
By mid-June 1869 the roadbed for the new track between Long Island City and Winfield, which immediately adjoined the Long Island R.R. track, had been largely graded and the west end nearly ready for rails. In July there were two minor setbacks: a new passenger coach consigned to the road became detached while crossing the Harlem River on a car ferry and fell into the water. More serious was a shortage of timber which should have been delivered in June but which arrived only the third week of July. In the last days of July the rails were laid to College Point.
Whatever minor difficulties may have occurred were quickly forgotten on the occasion of the running of the first train on Monday, August 2, from Flushing through to College Point. Some of the railroad officials and a few invited guests were in the train and were delighted at the smooth track. The inspecting party looked over the half completed College Point depot and the fully finished machine and car repair shops near the depot. On Saturday, August 14, regular service opened between Flushing and College Point with two trips only in each direction, one train in the morning and another in the afternoon. The event was celebrated in College Point with great pomp and ceremony. At 3 P.M. President Poppenhusen and his family, together with the various musical societies and fire companies, moved in procession to the depot to await the arrival of the train from Flushing. As it came along, exactly on time, loud cheers went up, followed with singing by the musical societies and selections by the College Point band. Speeches were then made by Mr. Thomas Daley, Mr. Poppenhusen, and Mr. Franklin, a director. The party on the train then toured the Empire Rubber Works of Mr. Poppenhusen and the newly completed Poppenhusen Institute.
All efforts were now directed towards completion of the remaining mile to Whitestone. For some strange reason three or more weeks went by without any effort being made to lay tracks or build a depot, and a rumor began to spread that nothing further would be done. Finally, on September 16, workmen reappeared on the roadbed and at the turntable. A completion date of November 1 was set, and work began on a temporary depotat Whitestone, to be replaced later by a brick edifice. By October 30, nearly the whole mile extension was ballasted and the rails were about to go down.
On November 27, the road was opened at last. Although the day was dark and quite stormy, a special train, loaded with invited guests, of which about twenty-five were newspapermen, arrived at the Bridge Street depot at noon, where they were joined by the Village Trustees, officers of the road and other guests. A stop of an hour was made at Flushing to permit the city guests to tour Flushing in carriages. Then the train left for College Point and another hour's layover was arranged so that the guests could look over the factories and imposing mansions of the village. When the cars reached Whitestone, the people bearing banners, evergreens, and mottoes turned out en masse despite torrents of rain, amid the ringing of bells and the salute of a brass band. The guests were received at the flag-draped depot and addressed by the grand marshal of the ceremonies, and Mr. Poppenhusen replied in kind. Carriages then escorted the guests to the Whitestone Hotel. The procession passed all through the village, while the people along the route waved flags and banners and enjoyed the floats that had been gotten up to entertain the visitors. One float represented an entire carpenter's shop with the mechanics busily at work; the Whitestone Boat Club riding in a boat, and a baseball club with the members in shirtsleeves and wearing their hats. Two hundred persons sat down at the tables of the Whitestone Hotel and were served a special dinner. Toast after toast was proposed by Mr. Locke, Mr. Judd, Conrad and Adolph Poppenhusen and many others. At the end a special train conveyed all back to the city.
The first train through to Whitestone marked the public celebration also of the opening of the new roadbed to Hunter's Point, quietly put into use twelve days before. In September plans for the new depot and terminus at Hunter's Point had been completed and by the end of the month the work was put under contract. Construction was begun October 29. On October 8 the roadbed between the new Hunter's Point depot and Winfield was completed, and with this important work accomplished, the directors of the Flushing & North Side R.R. felt free to abandon the old New York & Flushing roadbed from Winfield Junction through Maspeth to Hunter's Point. Within a few days this segment was purchased by the new South Side R.R. of L.I. in order to get a deep-water outlet on the East River.
By the end of November 1869 the new Hunter's Point depot at Front and Third Streets was sufficiently completed to be used. The building itself was large and commodious and a covered passage-way led from the depot direct to the ferries. A turntable adjoined the depot. There was every need for haste in completing arrangements. The old lease, which Oliver Charlick of the Long Island R.R. had granted in July 1867 to the Flushing & North Side R.R. to use the Hunter's Point terminal, was due to expire on November 17, and Charlick was hardly likely to permit a rival road to use his depot facilities one hour beyond the expiration of the lease. Already for more than a year Charlick had been compelled to permit Flushing & North Side trains to share his facilities.
On November 17 the changeover of depots at Hunter's Point and inauguration of the new route to that point was scheduled, but things went so well that the trains began using both the route and depot on November 15 simultaneously with the appearance of the November timetable. This date—November 15—therefore, marks the beginning of service to two new stations, Woodside and Hunter's Point, and the abandonment of one old one, Penny Bridge (Calvary Cemetery) station at Laurel Hill Boulevard.
With the completion of the through road from Hunter's Point to Whitestone, the ambitions of the Flushing & North Side R.R. and the many Flushing people behind them, were at last realized. The road was largely new construction, and the rolling stock almost entirely new, and the management of the road was in the hands of local people who themselves lived in the villages served and who were responsive to local needs and desires. It is appropriate at this time to look at the Flushing & North Side R.R. in as much detail as the lapse of a century will permit, and assess what sort of road it was.