Newark Broad Street station (Central Railroad of New Jersey)

Not to be confused with Newark Broad Street station.
Newark Broad Street
A Beaux-Arts style facade on an urban street
The facade of the former station in 2009
General information
Location832–836 Broad Street
Newark, New Jersey
United States
Coordinates40°44′2.22″N 74°10′21.50″W / 40.7339500°N 74.1726389°W / 40.7339500; -74.1726389
Line(s)Newark and New York Branch
Distance7.5 miles (12.1 km) from Jersey City[1]
Construction
ArchitectJoseph O. Osgood
Architectural styleBeaux-Arts
History
OpenedAugust 2, 1869
ClosedApril 30, 1967
Rebuilt1917
Former services
Preceding station Central Railroad of New Jersey Following station
Terminus Newark and New York Branch Ferry Street
toward Jersey City
Location
Map

Newark Broad Street station was a railway terminal in Newark, New Jersey at the western end of the Newark and New York Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The station was located on Broad Street, near Four Corners. It was approximately 2,500 feet (760 m) west of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Newark Penn Station and 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's Newark Broad Street station. The building was constructed in 1917, replacing an earlier structure. The station closed in 1967 as part of the Aldene Plan. The Prudential Center arena occupies most of the site. The head house on Broad Street remains and is contributing property of the Four Corners Historic District.

Design

Broad Street station was designed by Joseph O. Osgood. It had to fit within a small urban footprint: the station entrance facing Broad Street was only 40 feet (12 m) wide. The concourse, located behind Broad Street, was 60 by 166 feet (18 m × 51 m). The station had four tracks, and a small freight yard was located to the south, adjacent to Lafayette Street.[2] A reinforced concrete trainshed covered the two island platforms, which ran east to Mulberry Street.[3]

History

"NEW JERSEY CENTRAL" lettering on the former facade

The Central Railroad of New Jersey established the Newark and New York Railroad in 1866 to construct a branch from Jersey City, New Jersey, to Newark, New Jersey.[4] The 6-mile (9.7 km) line cost a then-exorbitant $300,000 per mile.[5] The line was elevated through Newark, with the Newark terminus located on Broad Street "between Fair and Mechanic."[6][a] Service over the branch began on August 2, 1869.[7] The current building was constructed between 1916–1917 at a cost of $483,000.[8][9]

Trains operated east-west over the Newark and New York branch to the Jersey City (with a ferry transfer to the Liberty Street Ferry Terminal in New York City) or north-south via the Newark and Elizabethport branch to Perth Amboy and points beyond. In Elizabethport, passengers could transfer to trains on the Jersey Central main line.[10]

Through service to Jersey City ended on the morning of February 3, 1946, when the collier Jaeger Seam struck and damaged the Hackensack Drawbridge, which carried the Newark and New York Branch across the Hackensack River. The Jersey Central instituted shuttle service between Newark and Kearny, New Jersey, and west from Jersey City to West Side Avenue.[11] Intended as a temporary measure, this service pattern became permanent after the Jersey Central abandoned plans to rebuild the bridge.[5]

Service at Newark Broad Street ended on April 30, 1967. Under the Aldene Plan, Jersey Central passenger trains on the main line were re-routed to serve Newark Penn Station over the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Newark Broad Street closed, and all passenger service ended on the Newark and New York branch and the Newark and Elizabethport branch.[12][13]

Developer Harry Grant purchased the station from the city in 1986 for $1.2 million, with plans to build the 60,000 square feet (5,600 m2) Renaissance Mall on the property.[14] Grant subsequently declared bankruptcy, and the mall was never completed.[15] The Prudential Center was eventually built on the same space and opened in 2007.[16]

The head house, including the facade on Broad Street, remains and was included as a contributing property of the Four Corners Historic District in 2000.[17] That status notwithstanding, it sold to a private developer in 2016 for retail use.[18] As of 2024, the facade remains standing.

Notes

  1. ^ Now Lafayette Street and Edison Place, respectively.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Official Guide of the Railways. New York: National Railway Publication Co. March 1945. p. 350. OCLC 6340864.
  2. ^ Komelski (1983), pp. 46–48.
  3. ^ "Plate 1" (Map). Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Newark, Essex County, New Jersey. 1:600. Sanborn Map Company. Vol. 1. December 1929.
  4. ^ ICC (1929), p. 760.
  5. ^ a b Schmidt (1948), p. 52.
  6. ^ "Real Estate Notes". New York Daily Herald. April 11, 1869. p. 11. Retrieved December 22, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ ICC (1929), p. 835.
  8. ^ Komelski (1983), p. 46.
  9. ^ "New Railroad Station in Newark". Keyport Weekly. December 8, 1916. p. 3. Retrieved December 22, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Official Guide of the Railways. New York: National Railway Publication Co. July 1923. pp. 298–306. OCLC 6340864.
  11. ^ "Steamer Tears Away C. N. J. Span". The Star-Ledger. February 4, 1946. pp. 1, 9. Retrieved December 23, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Bulletin (1967), pp. 29–31.
  13. ^ Finston, Mark J. (May 2, 1967). "Aldene rode smoothly". The Star-Ledger. pp. 1, 4. Retrieved December 23, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Stewart, Angela (July 18, 1986). "Developer plans 'Newark Mall' at old Central Railroad station". The Star-Ledger. pp. 1, 6. Retrieved December 23, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Mays, Jeffery C. (March 4, 2005). "As mall falls for arena; jobs rise". The Star-Ledger. p. 3. Retrieved December 23, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Wang, Katie (October 24, 2007). "For some, arena's back is front and center". The Star-Ledger. p. 45. Retrieved December 23, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Four Corners Historic District". National Parks Service. September 8, 2000. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  18. ^ Carter, Barry (May 3, 2016). "It's Hands Off the Status Quo". The Star-Ledger. pp. 13, 15. Retrieved December 23, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.

References