TERMINAL BLISS

Bergen residents love their train stations—even where the last “All aboard!” has become a distant echo. By Donna Rolando

Whether it’s been a starting point for nationwide journeys or for daily treks to work in the big city (or both), the railroad station has long played a vital role in American life. It’s a defining structure in Bergen’s downtowns too, and the wise municipality keeps its stations looking spiffy and telling their architectural tale whether passenger trains still stop there or not. Here, you’ll read about six such stations (some still active as railroad stops, some fulfilling other functions) that help our county preserve its character—and a touch of the romance of the rails.

TENAFLY, 1 Piermont Rd. GWB proved to be curtains for Tenafly’s train station as a rail stop, prompting its shutdown in 1966, says nj.gov. But this historic site was not permitted to become a rock pile. In fact, a roughly $150,000 grant through the New Jersey Historic Preservation Bond Program helped restore its former glory in High Victorian Gothic style. Not only did it return to its “fashionable” status—true to its 1872 design by notable architect Daniel T. Atwood—but preservation efforts also extended to its canopy and sandstone walls, according to nj.gov. Back in its heyday, according to The Historical Marker Database, the station got its start with a donation of land and funds, then residents and the Northern Railroad of New Jersey kicked in the rest. The borough now owns the state and national historic site.

ORADELL,

400 Maple Ave.

A grand showpiece for the borough with its Queen Anne Victorian style, the Oradell station remains an active part of the Pascack Valley Line, with direct service to Hoboken. Hundreds of passengers hop aboard on the average weekday for this and other New Jersey Transit rail service. Yet the one-and-a-half-story structure is no longer staffed round the clock and ended up with extra space that is now being leased. Oradell train service goes back to 1870, when Hackensack and the New York Extension Railroad reached out to Hackensack and Hillsdale. Twenty years later it was time for Oradell to rebuild. Today’s ornate wood-frame structure with a shingled overhang to shield passengers is a designated national treasure, and TrainWeb describes it as simply “lovely.”

MAYWOOD,

269 Maywood Ave.

It’s hard to find a town more passionate about its railroad. When demolition threatened Maywood’s station on the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad Line, citizens came to the rescue, and today there’s a museum to showcase the 1872 structure as well as a caboose and Locomotive No. 206. That effort was the work of the Maywood Station Historical Committee, which created the museum to help residents appreciate the railroad’s role in shaping the region. According to maywood station.com, “The added ease of transportation began to attract manufacturing to Maywood as well as a demand for new homes. In 1894, the total residents living in Maywood numbered approximately 300 but this was about to change.” By 1920 the population was 3,000; a century later it was 10,080. Fun fact: Both the station, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2022, and the locomotive are listed on state and national registers of historic places.

WALDWICK,

Hewson Avenue and Prospect Street.

Built in 1887, the Waldwick Railroad Station is a prime example of Queen Anne architecture that might not be here today if not for a nonprofit that turned it into a museum of local history. Once New Jersey Transit retired the station, it fell into disrepair. “By 2005, it appeared the station would be left for dead and lost forever,” recalls the Waldwick Community Alliance website. After battling with New Jersey Transit, however, the Alliance won the right to rebuild the station, starting in 2011.

This station stands out as one of the few extant frame terminals built before 1900 on New Jersey’s Erie Railroad Line. A state and national historic gem, it is also worth remembering for its impact on the local economy. Thanks in part to the adjoining Waldwick Railroad Yard, an active facility from 1890 to 1960, the railroad at its peak employed family members in half of Waldwick’s households, according to the alliance.

RADBURN,

Pollitt Drive and Fair Lawn Avenue.

It’s no accident that the Borough of Fair Lawn finds one of its two train stations within walking distance of Radburn. Touted as a planned community for the motor age, Radburn was designed to be self-sufficient and, of course, that meant its own train station for commuters. The wooden freight depot formerly at the site had met its match, and what a stylish change. The Dutch Colonial Revival facade was a modern stroke in 1929, when Radburn architect Clarence Stein built the station. Stein’s future vision was right on track, apparently, because while other stations have closed, New Jersey Transit continues to operate Radburn today in connection with its Bergen County Line. Both the train station and the community that inspired it have state and national historic recognition.

DEMAREST, Park Street. Though the sound of a passenger train whistle blowing is just a memory, one might hear a meeting gavel, as the Demarest railroad station serves as a meeting place, remaining a vital part of life in the community it helped to grow. When it was built in 1872 on the Northern Railroad of New Jersey Line, Demarest was primarily a farming town, but those tracks opened the door to commuters, and suburbia spread. Fun fact: The town and station bear the name of State Senator Ralph S. Demarest, a railroad director who owned the land where the station was built. Another notable, the architect behind its Romanesque-Revival style, was J. Cleaveland Cady, designer of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the old Metropolitan Opera House. Passenger service ended in 1966. No more would tickets be sold here, but state grant dollars helped restore the station for community use, right down to its ornamental design.

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