Holtsville

HOLTSVILLE: The line opened in 1843, but the stop not listed on timetables of 1844 and 1845. Became a station stop:  ?  . The old store south of the tracks on the east side of Waverly
Ave. served as original “Waverly” Depot. In svc:  ?  with female Station Agent M. E. Bloomer (per 1878 LIRR book of rules). Post office renamed "Holtsville" in 1860, but the LIRR retained the old name. Per "Babylon Signal" newspaper article of 03/23/1882, Waverly and Bartlett stations were to be abandoned (Art Huneke data). 

According to a "Babylon Signal" newspaper article of April, 1884, after a two-year period with no train service, Waverly Station was reopened in the post office building with Mrs. M. E. Bloomer again the station agent. "New platforms have been erected and other improvements made" (Art Huneke data). Renamed: "Holtsville" sometime in the mid-late 1890s. Depot building razed: 1912.

2nd depot opened: 5/13/12, burned: 1/4/14   3rd depot built: 1914. Suffolk Traction Co.’s 1912 steel trestle over tracks demolished: 1930.  Agency closed: 1/1959. Razed: 7/62. Replaced with sheet metal shelter shed that had been removed by late 1960s. Metal and plexiglass shelter shed installed: Early-mid 1970s which remained in place until discontinued as station stop: 3/16/1998.

A fantastically RARE image of Waverly station with agent M. E. Bloomer. View is SE, c. 1880. 
The dirt path at the right in front of the bull is Waverly Ave. . . notice the tracks are planked for the crossing.
Image from the Wm. Biesecker collection, appearing in Ziel's "Steel Rails to the Sunrise".

The same depot only now renamed "Holtsville." View is SW in 1899 (Fullerton photo). Waverly Ave. is a bit wider and visible in the background. Note how far back from the tracks the depot is sitting, so that an access roadway to the agent's house could be had. This roadway was still in place the last time I was at Holtsville station. The 1909 map accurately shows the depot set back a ways from the tracks. The tracks are to the right beyond the photo. Note how much more ramshackle the structure is and extremely overgrown! Imagine that a replacement depot wasn't constructed for yet another 13 years! Image by Hal Fullerton, from the Suffolk County Historical Society's archive in Riverhead, and appearing in Ziel's "Steel Rails to the Sunrise".

The brand-new, 2nd Holtsville depot on opening day: 5/13/1912 View SW. It appears the entire town’s population turned out for the photo!  Agent Bloomer's brick house visible at the far right. The access road to her house as viewed in image #2, now accesses not only her house but the new depot facilities. Unfortunately, this depot only lasted a short time and burned on January 4, 1914, being replaced with a depot of similar architectural style minus the end columns, centered ticket office bay window and upper dormer.  Replacement had an end ticket bay and a hip roof with NO dormers. (Image from Dave Keller's archive, made from a glass plate negative in the Queensboro Public Library, Jamaica, NY)

The second depot at Holtsville in 1912 shortly after it was opened on May 14th of that year, replaced the original, ramshackle, wooden building which had been located right next to Waverly Ave. and had been named "Waverly" until it's name change to Holtsville and the LIRR changed timetable listings. That original depot was in use since 1843 when the tracks extended east towards Greenport, and was an old general store and post office that was converted to station and postal facilities.

For many years the female station agent at that old station was Miss M. E. Bloomer, back in the late 1800's. She's listed in the LIRR's 1878 Book of Rules as M. E. Bloomer. Reference: Art Huneke.  The building just east of  the station is in the name of M. E. Bloom (map below). It was of brick construction and was still standing but abandoned and overgrown with bushes and vines when I was young. 

Sometime later in 1912, the Suffolk Traction Company began construction of its steel trestle over the LIRR tracks just east of the station.  As there is yet no sign of the structure in this image, and a heavy growth of weeds is visible in the left foreground, it's safe to assume this image was photographed during the summer of 1912. (Remnants of this structure can be seen in other images posted on this page.)

This fine little station with long overhanging eaves and supporting end columns was, unfortunately, short-lived, succumbing to a destructive fire on January 4, 1914.  Some months later, a third, replacement depot was constructed on the exact same site as this one.  That depot is pictured below and stood on this site until it was razed in July, 1962.  The ticket agency had already been previously closed in January, 1959.  (Dave Keller data)

Holtsville post office panoramic
This c. 1925 view is looking east from the west side of Waverly Ave. crossing.  The depot is visible in the distance as well as the steel ramps leading up to the overpass of the Suffolk Traction Company’s 1912 steel trestle over the LIRR’s Main Line.  At the left is the general store/gas station/post office.  In later years, the old school house on Long Island Avenue (later the Holtsville Fire Department) became the post office, replacing the convenient trackside location of the general store.  The postal worker now had to cart the mail bag back and forth between the depot and the post office in a wheelbarrow.  In the 1950s, the store was owned by a family named Lydecker.  At the far right, between the old house that is visible and Waverly Avenue, was the site of the original, pre-1843 structure which served as “Waverly” Station prior to the town’s name change in 1860.  There was a town named Waverly in upstate New York so the name was changed in honor of General Joseph Holt who was the JAG of the United States Army, appointed by President James Buchanan to become the 18th Postmaster General, serving between March 9, 1859 and December 31, 1860.  
(Photo courtesy of the Robert M.  Emery collection – SUNY - Stony Brook) 

In the original photo (see above), the man was not standing near the car.  He's an add-in by whomever colorized the card. Also, the peak of the store's roof at the Waverly Ave. side was cut off in the original image, and has been added-in. The steel ramps and stanchions for the old Suffolk Traction Co. trestle east of the depot have been removed from the colorized post card. 

Holtsville bike crossing east of station 

This 1897 view looking north shows a westbound Atlantic-type (4-4-0) locomotive #92 with oversized cab stopped at the north/south bicycle path crossing of the LIRR’s Main Line between Holtsville and Medford. The bike path ran from Patchogue on the south shore, around Bald Hill in the hamlet of Farmingville and on through Coram into Port Jefferson on Long Island’s north shore. (Harold Fullerton photo, Robert M. Emery collection courtesy of SUNY @ Stony Brook)

Holtsville viaduct construction

This 1912 view looking northeast shows the 1912 construction of the Suffolk Traction Company’s steel trestle over the LIRR’s Main Line just east of the depot at Holtsville. The lines four storage battery cars ran from the foot of Patchogue dock to Main Street, where the line branched west to Blue Point and north past Canaan Lake along Traction Blvd. until it entered the woods on a private right of way (PROW), heading in a northeasterly direction towards Holtsville station. The line was intended to extend over the trestle at Holtsville and on to Port Jefferson but, although the right of way was graded as far as north of Farm-to-Market Road, track was never laid and the trestle was never used. It remained in place in its entirety until the girders over the LIRR’s Main Line were removed c. 1920. The rest of the structure remained until 1930 when all but two stanchions, one concrete and one steel, were demolished. The steel stanchion disappeared over time, perhaps during the scrap metal drives of WWII, but the concrete stanchion just south of Long Island Avenue and opposite Woodland Avenue remained in place on private property as late as the late 1980s when your writer moved to sunny Florida. (Dave Keller archive)

Holtsville kerosene platform lamps

This c. 1925 view looking northeast from Waverly Avenue shows the old platforms and Dietz kerosene platform lamps in place. These lamps remained in use until c. 1942 when they were replaced by electric lights on poles. The traction company trestle is still visible in the center background with the depot in the right background. The structure at the left on the north side of the tracks was not a railroad structure. (Photo courtesy of the Robert M. Emery collection – SUNY @ Stony Brook)

Holtsville diagram - Emery collection at SUNY Stony Brook

Holtsville station diagram - Emery collection at SUNY Stony Brook

Holtsville viaduct diagram - Emery collection at SUNY Stony Brook

Holtsville Station - This view of the third depot building on site is looking east in March, 1952.  In the distance can be seen a freight car spotted on the team track.  It appears that the concrete footings for the end columns that were a feature of the previous depot were never removed and are visible in line behind the platform electric light pole.  (Photo courtesy of the Robert M.  Emery collection – SUNY @ Stony Brook)

This color view is towards the end of life of the 3rd depot at Holtsville.  This depot was opened in 1914 and replaced the 1912 structure which burned.  During WWI, Holtsville was an active train order block office, and was identified with the call letters “HV.”  By the time of this color image, the well-defined station platform is long-gone and the background is quite overgrown.  The agency closed in January, 1959 and the depot building was vandalized and eventually razed in July, 1962.  The view is looking southeast with Katz’s Dairy Farm in the right background.  (Courtesy of Art Huneke)

Form 19 train order #208 issued at “HV” block station on October 31, 1917.  Employee timetables list the block office as “HV” but at that time, the block office name was spelled out in full, i.e. “Holtsville.”  This order was made complete by block operator G. G. Powell at 6;53 pm, indicating that there were two tricks (shifts) of block operators on duty at what actually was a very slow, country station but for WWI underway at the time and Camp Upton further east on the Main Line in service.  Troop trains were coming and going at this point in time, making Holtsville a busy place for the handling of through trains.  “Extra #204 west” referred to class D16b (4-4-0) locomotive #204, while numbers 264 and 246 referred to scheduled eastbound trains. 
(Dave Keller archive)

Cash remittances were made by the railroad for ticket sales and express charges.  Two wax sealers were used at a ticket agency:  one marked "Long Island Rail Road" or "L.I.R.R." with the station identification number on the sealer (the number matched the closest milepost marker to the station) and another marked with the name of the express agency in service at the time along with the station name.  This wax sealer was used at the Holtsville station along the LIRR's Main Line at a time when the Adams Express Company was the firm contracted by the LIRR to carry their express.  The Adams Express Company became the American Railway Express Company in 1918 and the ticket agency was closed at Holtsville in January, 1959.  (Morrison-Keller)

REMITTANCES:
Remittance in cash was sent via express messenger.  The cash would be placed in a heavy envelope, sealed, and large needle with heavy thread/twine shoved through the cash remittance to keep anyone along the way from sneaking one or two bills out of the batch without cutting the string, and sealing wax melted over the ends of the string and the envelope seal and embossed with the metal wax sealer of the specific station. Info: This procedure was explained by George G. Ayling, Agent/operator at CI who, back in 1909, started his LIRR career as an express messenger at Brentwood.