Rochester subway postcard. The Lehigh Valley Railroad Station's passenger platforms, service road, and freight terminal are visible
Around the turn of the 20th century, the Lehigh Valley Railroad was the last of several railroads to bring passenger service to Rochester.[1] The first passenger terminal was a small wooden depot constructed a few blocks to the south of the later station, near where I-490 passes today.[1]
The current station was built in 1905 and consisted of a passenger station and freight terminal. The buildings are located above the Johnson-Seymour mill on the Genesee River and across the river from the site of the former Erie Railroad Depot. The passenger station is a brick, hip-roofed, 1+1⁄2-story structure with French Renaissance overtones, including "two-toned walls, copper gutters and flashing and a red tiled roof."[1] The freight terminal is a 1-story brick structure. Behind the buildings was two tracks and an island platform elevated above the river with the Lehigh Valley tracks heading south along the east side of the river. To the left of the buildings was an elevated service road that led to a bigger Lehigh Valley railyard.
Passenger service ended in 1950 with the decline of the railroad which began during the Great Depression and resulted in it having to restructure its debt multiple times under the Chandler Acts of 1938–9.[4][3]
Post-train station years
After the ending of passenger service, the station briefly served as a bus depot, but it was abandoned completely in 1954.[1] Around the same time, the platform and tracks from the station were demolished and most of the service road was demolished in the 1960s.[5] The buildings became widely known as an eyesore in Rochester, and a refurbishment attempt in the 1970s failed.[1] Local developer Max Farash bought the buildings in 1982 (for one dollar), and a two-year restoration process ensued.[6] In 1985, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[2]
After a few years in the 1990s as a nightclub called Carpe Diem, the buildings now house Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.[1] In 2018, a re-development project on the site of the former Rochester SubwayCourt Street station and remains of the service road resulted in a luxury high rise being built next door and in one of the footings used to support the station being used to also support a pedestrian walkway called the Genesee Riverway Promenade.[7][8] From the promenade, one can see the former braces on the station deck that once helped support the train platform and tracks.
Gallery
An aerial view of Rochester Downtown in the late 1930s, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Station is on the lower right
Bar-B-Que restaurant in 2022
C. 1906 panorama of Rochester, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Station is in the foreground
