Wentworth Avenue station

Wentworth Avenue was a station on the demolished South Beach Branch of the Staten Island Railway. It had one side platform served by one track and was located at Oceanside Avenue and Wentworth Avenue, which has been restored to a Bluebelt wetland since its acquisition by the NYC DEP as part of the South Beach Drainage Plan. Much of the area along the coast nearby has been similarly acquired by city or state agencies in order to allow for storm protection since the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy.

Wentworth Avenue
Former Staten Island Railway station
General information
Location	Staten Island
Coordinates	40.589028°N 74.069861°W / 40.589028; -74.069861 (Wentworth Avenue Station)
Line(s)	South Beach Branch
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	1
History
Opened	1925; 99 years ago (1925)[1]
Closed	March 31, 1953; 71 years ago (1953-03-31)
Former services
Preceding station Staten Island Railway Following station South Beach toward Clifton South Beach Branch Terminus

History

This station was the last stop on the South Beach Branch, and was the smallest and easternmost Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station.^[2] The South Beach Branch was planned to continue past this point to Prominard Street at Oakwood Beach, but was not built beyond Wentworth Avenue because the branch would have crossed the Vanderbilt family farm.^[2] This station was built in 1925, when the South Beach Branch was electrified.^[2][3] This platform was only a door's length and had to be keyed open by the conductor.^[2][3][4] The platform's length was 20 feet 11 inches.^[4] The station had electric lights, but there was no electrical switch for them at the station.^[3] Instead, the ticket agent at South Beach controlled the lights.^[3] This station was abandoned when the SIRT discontinued passenger service on the entire South Beach Branch at midnight on March 31, 1953, because of city-operated bus competition.^[3][5][6][7] All traces of the station have been eliminated, as well as adjacent streets and access roads.^[3]

References

1. "Gary Owen SIRT Page Part Two". Retrieved April 11, 2016.
2. Bommer, Edward (2003). Stations and Places Along the Staten Island Rapid Transit. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
3. "Gary Owen SIRT Page Part Two". Gary Owen Land. April 20, 1937. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
4. Wentworth Avenue Station Plans
5. Pitanza, Marc (2015). Staten Island Rapid Transit Images of Rail. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4671-2338-9.
6. Drury, George H. (1994). The Historical Guide to North American Railroads: Histories, Figures, and Features of more than 160 Railroads Abandoned or Merged since 1930. Waukesha, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing. pp. 312–314. ISBN 0-89024-072-8.
7. "The Old Order Passeth: Rails Surrender To Roads: Passenger Runs on Two Lines of SIRT Will End at Midnight". Staten Island Advance. March 31, 1953. Retrieved October 14, 2015.