Westchester Avenue
Westchester Avenue is an abandoned New Haven Line station on the Hell Gate Line, that once provided a transfer point to the IRT Pelham Line on the New York City Subway at Whitlock Avenue via a short walk down Westchester Blvd. The station is presently on the still-active Amtrak Hell Gate Line that will soon be receiving Metro-North New Haven Line trains running to Penn Station, these trains won’t make a stop here, but will at Hunts Point Avenue one stop south (and on the opposite side of the Bruckner Expressway from the subway station).
The station itself was designed by Cass Giilbert who also designed the Woolworth Building. It consists of a small station house with taller ceilings nestled at the corner of an off-ramp from the Sheridan Expressway. This taller station house led to an enclosed overpass area, providing access to long removed staircases down to two low-level side platforms. The station is presently in poor condition and covered by Ivy with tiles missing from its tiled roof. The station has some terra cotta ornamentation including of a caduceus, the icon that was the logo of the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway, that serviced the station under trackage rights with the New Haven.
For service New Haven Line trains stopped at the station until 1931. The New York Westchester, and Boston Railway (who’s private ROW switched off the New Haven Line began a bit north of the station, leading up to the East 180 Street Station, the next stop) stopping until the line was abandoned on December 31, 1937. This station along with 3 more stops south of this station were the only stops on the NYW&B that had low-level platforms instead of high-level platforms.
All Photos taken on June 10, 2011
