Author Topic: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE  (Read 29284 times)

Offline BLeafe

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HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« on: January 10, 2009, 11:36:05 AM »
http://www.northjersey.com/breakingnews/Fire_destroy_historic_train_station.html


A fire destroyed the Historic Anderson Street Train Station early this morning.


The historic Anderson Street Train Station in Hackensack was destroyed this morning by a three-alarm fire.

According to Matthew Wagner, Hackensack Deputy Fire Chief, the blaze started just before 6AM and grew into a three-alarm fire. Mutual Aid from surrounding communities helped battle the fire. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The station was built in 1869 and was one of the stations on the Erie Railroad.

The station was listed on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1984.


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« Last Edit: January 10, 2009, 12:43:03 PM by PhotoLeafe »


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Offline Editor

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Re: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2009, 11:57:33 AM »
Tragic.  This is a huge loss for the city. 

From Hackensack, Three Centuries of Prosperity, page 33:

The arrival of the "iron horse" and railroads in the mid-1800s changed Hackensack from primarily a farming and manufacturing village to a bustling center of commerce. In 1850, Thomas Demarest and other local men built the Northern Valley Railroad, connecting points of Bergen County with a train that ran from New York City to Sufferen. Twenty years later, the New Jersey Midland Company (which later became the Susquehanna Railroad) opened two stations in Hackensack - at Main and Mercer Streets and Prospect Avenue - which were stops on its east-west line that ran from Jersey City to Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. At about the same time, the Hackensack and New York Railroad Company extended their north-south rails, opening four stations in Hackensack: Essex Street, Central Avenue, Anderson St., and Fairmount. Although Hackensack was never a manufacturing giant in the same way other eastern seaboard cities such as Paterson were, dependable rail travel caused several major industries to open in the city in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some of of the most profitable were the Givermud Brothers silk-waving plants, the Thomas Jewelry Man-Company, S. Goldberg Slipper Factory, and the William Campbell & Company's wallpaper factory, which later became the site of Packard's.

This is from George Scudder's Historic Facts About Hackensack:

In 1869, the Hackensack and New York Railroad Company was operating trains from Jersey City to Essex Street, Hackensack. That same year the residents of Hackensack donated $2,600 for building a station and extending the tracks to Anderson Street. By March 4, 1870, the tracks had been laid all the way to Hillsdale and stations were located at Central Avenue, Anderson Street, Fairmount (then called Zingsem), and Cherry Hill (North Hackensack). This line was later extended to Havestraw, NY and was operated by the Erie Railroad as their NJ and NY line. In recent years the Erie merged with the Lacawanna and the trains are diesel powered instead of coal burning steam locomotives. The railroad running east and west through Hackensack, known as the Susquehanna, began in 1862 and was known then as the New Jersey Midland Railway Company. At the start, three trains daily ran from Jersey City ferry to Hackensack. By March 1872, the line had been extended to Newfoundland and later to Sparta, Newton, Blairstown and across the Delaware River to Stroudsburg, Pa. At one period, about 1915, there were thirty-eight trains daily from Hackensack to New York and return.



1910 Photo from The Architecture of Bergen County. .


[The Record has this image dated at 1869 on their website, which is probably right. I think the image may have been published in 1910. It looks like it was taken at the same time as the picture above.]


1910 postcard view of the New Jersey & New York Railroad (Erie) Anderson Street station in Hackensack, NJ. The station was built in 1868 and is very close in design to Maywood Station. Today, the station has been restored and is owned by NJ Transit who lease it to a boutique and as office space. (MSHC collection)  Source: http://www.maywoodstation.com/historicalphotos2.htm

Click here to see other rail stations in Hackensack. 

Federal/State Historic Registers
Anderson Street Railroad Station (ID#519)
Anderson Street
SR: 3/17/1984
NR: 6/22/1984 (NR Reference #: 84002520)
(Thematic Nomination of Operating Passenger Railroad Stations)

More pictures: http://www.subwaynut.com/njt/andersonst/index.html

This is the company that did the restoration some time ago: http://www.jbconservation.com/projects.html
« Last Edit: January 12, 2009, 09:49:10 PM by Editor »

Offline just watching

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Re: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2009, 12:30:45 PM »
OMG !!!!!!!!!!!!  Now I know why train service was interrupted.  My only clue that something happened was a brief notation on Channel 61 Traffic & Weather

Despite the fire, we still have enough history left in Hackensack to warrant the creation of a Historic Commission.  Here's a list of communities in Bergen County with Historic Commissions.

BERGEN COUNTY
Allendale, Cresskill, Demarest, Englewood, Fair Lawn, Leonia, Lyndhurst, Mahwah, Maywood, Montvale, New Milford, North Arlington, Paramus, Rutherford, Saddle River, Teaneck, Ridgefield Park, Ridgewood, Rochelle Park, Rockleigh, Tenafly
« Last Edit: January 10, 2009, 12:37:48 PM by Editor »

Offline BLeafe

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Re: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2009, 12:39:20 PM »
I live on Union St and my bedroom faces the river. At 7am, the strong smell of burning wood woke me up...............little did I know.

I just went over there. Horrid.

Smoke still coming out all over the place, some hot spots still had flames, hoses still trained on them. Anderson St is blocked off from Park to Linden. Lots of emergency vehicles there and in the Rite Aid lot.

I took lots of cell photos. I'll post them later today.



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Offline BLeafe

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Re: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2009, 04:30:30 PM »
This was personal.

I've always loved this place. I live 3 blocks down the street from it, I've enjoyed photographing it............I even met the great love of my life face-to-face for the very first time there when she got off a train.

After I saw justwatching's post in another thread here about a problem between Anderson St and Hoboken, I checked The Record's site, and was horrified to find out that this great structure was destroyed.

After posting about it, I ran right over to take pictures with my cell phone. I'm glad I didn't wait. The snow has since gotten heavier and I wouldn't be surprised if what's left is torn down today so train service can resume without fear of collapse from the vibrations.

A woman I spoke to on the scene told me her son, who she indicated lives in the vicinity of Maple St by the tracks (It's hard to tell exactly where from just a wave of her hand in that direction), was woken at 5:30am by what he thought were firecrackers.

She said the noises came from the back of the station - the side furthest from Anderson St.

A cop told me the call came in at 5:53am. If you look at the first picture, the sidewalk clock is stopped at 6:05am, when the power was shut off.

A man in a wool cap, who sported a bluetooth phone on his right ear, came around the corner from Linden onto Anderson and saw the scene. His jaw dropped as he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Oh my God! What happened?"

I told him.

It truly is a sad day for Hackensack and its residents.




Here's what I saw when I first got there around noon:





Water in, smoke out:





This is almost 7 hours after the fire started:





As I was leaving, I took one final photo. Its angle is vaguely reminiscent of that of the antique colorized postcard from 99 years ago posted above in this thread:






On a personal photographic note, one of the pictures I took today reminded me of one I took a couple of years ago when I horizontalized on the track with my camera:






(all images and text are ©Bob Leafe)



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« Last Edit: January 10, 2009, 04:33:53 PM by PhotoLeafe »
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Offline BLeafe

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Offline Editor

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Re: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2009, 10:41:13 AM »

Offline BLeafe

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Re: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2009, 05:17:10 PM »
THE DAY AFTER



Torn down, trains running...........and a spiffy new bus shelter has risen from the ashes:





From the other end:





The requisite shot of the two destroyed cars:





Some Green Caboose stuff:





It was "Santana's Greatest Hits" (I looked):





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Offline nataliemcdonald

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Re: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2009, 11:36:16 PM »
I can't find the words for this because it's so much history.  I went to Holy Trinity, so I spent a *lot* of time in that immediate vicinity during the 30 years I lived in Hackensack.  I remember the Green Caboose Thrift Shop and especially the Charlmaree next door.  I see they call it the Straphanger Saloon now, sounds kinda yuppiefied to me compared to my recollections of the clientele at the Charlmaree.  I commuted to Manhattan for 8 years, a large part of it by train from the Anderson Street Station.  No pre-fab NJ Transit bus shelter could ever replace the beloved Green Caboose.  I'm truly heartbroken.

Offline prospectgirl

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Re: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« Reply #9 on: January 11, 2009, 11:43:44 PM »
 
                                         How quickly the new phoenix rises!
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        sad,sad, sad...oh, so sad to lose such a cherished place and its treasure...   

« Last Edit: January 11, 2009, 11:47:03 PM by prospectgirl »

Offline nataliemcdonald

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Re: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2009, 11:48:14 PM »
But here's what bothered me about the article in The Record:

Quote
The Hackensack Fire Department responded at 5:55 a.m. to a “fully involved” fire, which caused the explosion of propane tanks inside the structure and two cars parked next to it, Deputy Chief Matt Wagner said.

Why were they storing propane tanks in that building???

Offline Editor

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Re: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« Reply #11 on: January 12, 2009, 09:32:09 AM »
More articles:

Fire Fighting News: http://www.firefightingnews.com/article.cfm?articleID=60242 (look at the pictures under "photo" tabs)








Offline irons35

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Re: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« Reply #12 on: January 12, 2009, 10:24:25 AM »
lots of photos.  to say it was fully involved on arrival is an understatement...

http://www.btfirephotos.smugmug.com/2009

http://www.brettsfirephotos.smugmug.com/gallery/7059075_FDuTg#452282697_HNz7j

there are more photos on the site www.bergenfires.com  but you have to sign up to see them. it is free though.

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Offline just watching

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Re: HISTORIC ANDERSON ST STATION DESTROYED BY FIRE
« Reply #14 on: January 16, 2009, 09:45:49 AM »
It figures that The Record would focus so much on it being a THRIFT STORE.

 

anything