Howard station (LIRR)

Howard (also Howard's Landing) was a former Long Island Rail Road station on the Rockaway Beach Branch. Located on marshland along the coast of Jamaica Bay south of the "WD Tower" near Hawtree Creek, it had no fixed address, and was south of what is today 165th Avenue, evidently within the Gateway National Recreation Area's Hamilton Beach Park.

Howard
A subway train near the former station site in 1973
General information
LocationHawtree Creek
Howard Beach, Queens, New York
Line(s)Rockaway Beach Branch
Platforms2 side platforms (1 added later)
Tracks2
History
Opened1898
Closed1907
ElectrifiedJuly 26, 1905
Former services
Preceding station Long Island
Rail Road		 Following station
Hamilton Beach
toward Glendale
 Rockaway Beach Division Goose Creek
toward Gibson or Rockaway Park

History

Howard station was originally built in 1898 by the New York and Rockaway Beach Railroad for a hotel and resort built by William H. Howard. The station contained a single plank walk platform over the water along the southbound tracks. Northbound train passengers had to step down into southbound track and walk through southbound cars before entering the hotel. The single platform was extended "several hundred feet" in April 1899, and was given a footpath almost a half-mile long in the Spring of 1900. This included a 34-foot drawbridge that was hand operated and blocked the mouth of Hawtree Creek, much to the dismay of many boaters and fisherman.

A woman who wasn't familiar with the arrangement of the platforms drowned in 1901, when she tried to step off a northbound train at night during high tide and was swept into Jamaica Bay. A northbound platform was added to the station in May 1902. On October 23, 1907, the entire resort including the station was destroyed in a fire. It was never rebuilt.[1]

References
  1. "The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History Volume #5(New York, Woodhaven & Rockaway Railroad; New York & Rockaway Beach railway; New York & Long Beach Railroad; New York & Rockaway railroad; Brooklyn rapid transit operation to Rockaway; Over L.I.R.R.)", by Vincent F. Seyfried

40.647°N 73.828°W / 40.647; -73.828


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