Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Industry & Commerce, Transportation

Location

116 Park St, Warsaw, NY 14569, USA

Lat/Long

42.746326, -78.128946

Grant Recipient

Warsaw Historical Society and The Gates House Museum

Built during the town of Warsaw’s golden age of manufacturing, the Park Street passenger depot opened in February 1906 to accommodate riders on the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg Railway. The Western New-Yorker (16 Feb 1906) called it a “credit to the town.”  The ladies’ waiting room was situated at the south and the men’s waiting room on the north with the ticket office midway between. The waiting rooms were heated by steam and each had its own ‘toilet room.’  Public areas were furnished with “…handsome settees along the sides and a double, back to back settee in the center of each room…The new building is lighted at night by electricity outside and in.” Built at a cost of $4,000, the articles exclaimed, “…the traveling public will find it all that can be desired.”

By 1953, however, railroad ridership had changed and the line from Rochester to Salamanca was no longer deemed financially viable by its owners, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Passenger train service ceased in late August 1953. The depot was closed and is said to have only been used by railroad maintenance crews since that time.