Rhinecliff station

The Hudson River Railroad opened between Greenbush (across the Hudson River from Albany) and New York City on October 1, 1851. At the time, ferry service between Kingston and Rhinebeck used either of two wharves on the east (Rhinebeck) side – Slate Dock or Long Dock – as determined by majority vote of eastbound passengers. The two docks were located about 1⁄3 mile (0.54 km) apart, due west of Rhinebeck and north of where Rhinecliff village is now located. The railroad station was established adjacent to Slate Dock.[4]

This arrangement proved highly inconvenient to railroad passengers, who were forced to walk down the track or take a longer detour on roads if the ferry went to Long Dock, and thus often missed their trains. Ferries were also not timed to make connections with trains. These issues were intentional on the part of brothers William and Charles Handy Russell, who owned the ferry as well as significant stock in the railroad. They aimed to garner support to relocate both the ferry terminus and railroad station to Shatzell's Dock, about 0.45 miles (0.72 km) south of Slate Dock, where they owned land.[4]

Local controversy followed the proposal. After a year of maneuvering by the Russells and their manager Thomas Cornell, the railroad's board of directors voted on October 8, 1852, to relocate the station to Shatzell's Dock. The western terminal of the ferry was changed from Kingston Point to Rondout on November 11, 1852. The eastern terminal was scheduled to change to Shatzell's Dock on that date, but it may have been delayed until the railroad began stopping at the dock on December 1.[4]

The Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad opened from Rhinebeck to the Connecticut state line in 1875; it later became part of the Central New England Railway.[5] The station was renamed from Rhinebeck to Rhinecliff in 1875. Around 1877, a disused corrugated iron station building from Yonkers was moved to Rhinecliff to replace the older station.[6]

The 1914-built station building in 2007

The New York Central Railroad (NYC) began construction to quadruple-track the line in 1909. A new station building, designed by Warren and Wetmore in the Mission-Spanish Revival style, opened in 1914. It had two island platforms serving the four tracks, with a footbridge to the station building.[6][7] The station cost the NYC $150,000 to build (equivalent to $3,030,000 in 2021). A new viaduct was built to carry Hudson Terrace over the tracks, and a second footbridge was constructed at the southern end – both to replace the closed Shatzell Avenue grade crossing and provide access to the ferry slip.[8]

Kingston ferry service ended in January 1957, shortly before the opening of the Kingston–Rhinecliff Bridge.[9] The NYC merged into Penn Central in 1968. Amtrak took over intercity passenger service, including the Penn Central Empire Service, in May 1971. Amtrak gradually added services in the corridor – many of them modifications of existing Empire Service trains – of which some stopped at Rhinecliff. Like much of the hamlet of Rhinecliff, the station is a contributing property to the Hudson River Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. Brief revivals of seasonal ferry service to Kingston took place in 1992 and 2015.[10][11]