Brick Church station

Brick Church
Looking east toward downtown East Orange
General information
Platforms1 side platform and 1 island platform
Tracks3
Connections
Other information
Fare zone4
History
OpenedNovember 19, 1836[1]
RebuiltDecember 1880[2]
April 21, 1921–December 18, 1922[3]
ElectrifiedSeptember 22, 1930[4]
Passengers
20172,041 (average weekday)[5][6]
Services
Preceding station NJ Transit Following station
Orange
toward Gladstone
Gladstone Branch
weekdays
East Orange
Orange Morristown Line
Former services
Preceding station Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Following station
Orange
toward Buffalo
Main Line East Orange
toward Hoboken
Brick Church Station
LocationBrick Church Plaza, East Orange, New Jersey
Coordinates40°45′56″N 74°13′10″W / 40.76556°N 74.21944°W / 40.76556; -74.21944
Area2 acres (0.8 ha)
Built1921
ArchitectNies, F.J.
Architectural styleTudor Revival, Jacobethan Revival
MPSOperating Passenger Railroad Stations TR
NRHP reference No.84002636[7]
Added to NRHPJune 22, 1984
Location
Map

Brick Church is an active commuter railroad station in the city of East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. The station, one of two in East Orange, is located a block away from the former site of the Brick Presbyterian Church (later, Temple for Unified Christians Brick Church), for which the neighborhood takes its name, designed with brick romanesque architecture.[8] The other station, located 0.6 miles (0.97 km) to the east, is the namesake East Orange stop. Trains from the station head east on New Jersey Transit's Morristown Line and Gladstone Branch to New York Penn Station and Hoboken Terminal while westbound trains service stops out to Gladstone and Hackettstown. Like its sister station, Brick Church contains three tracks and two platforms (a side platform and an island platform). However, it is not accessible for the handicapped.

Railroad service through East Orange began with the opening of the Morris and Essex Railroad on November 19, 1836 to Orange. The railroad stopped at the residence of local attorney Matthias Ogden Halsted each day for him to commute. He soon provided a station for commuters to use as well as himself, and hired a family to operate it, without charging the railroad. Locals helped fund and build a new depot in 1880.[2] The current station opened on December 18, 1922 when the railroad tracks through the city were elevated by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. The brick headhouse at Brick Church station were added to the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places in 1984 as part of the Operating Passenger Railroad Stations Thematic Resource.[9][10]

History

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The line that currently runs through East Orange began in 1835 with the charter of the Morris and Essex Railroad, being approved by the New Jersey State Legislature on January 29.[11] Service through the city of East Orange began on November 19, 1836 from Newark to The Oranges. With the construction of the railroad, Matthias Ogden Halsted (1792–1866), a local property developer took advantage of the one train a day that went to Newark. The railroad dropped Halsted off at his house and picked him up at his house rather making a trip to a station. Halsted offered at no cost to build a proper station at the site of the Brick Church station, and did so for the railroad.[12]

In May 2024, the Federal Transit Administration awarded NJT $83 million to reconstruct the station for accessibility.[13][14]

Station layout

[edit]
The eponymous church

The station has two low-level platforms serving all three tracks.

See also

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Bibliography

[edit]
  • Douglass, A.M. (1912). The Railroad Trainman, Volume 29. Cleveland, Ohio: Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
  • New Jersey State Board of Assessors (1888). Annual Report of the State Board of Assessors of the State of New Jersey, Volumes 4-5. Camden, New Jersey: S. Chew, Printer. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
  • Taber, Thomas Townsend; Taber, Thomas Townsend III (1980). The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in the Twentieth Century. Vol. 1. Muncy, PA: Privately printed. ISBN 0-9603398-2-5.
  • Whittemore, Henry (1896). The Founders and Builders of the Oranges. Newark, New Jersey: L.J. Hardham. Retrieved April 3, 2020.

References

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  1. ^ Douglass 1912, p. 339.
  2. ^ a b "A new depot has been erected..." The Montclair Times. December 4, 1880. p. 3. Retrieved February 18, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  3. ^ "D., L. & W. Opens New Elevated Line". The Paterson Evening News. December 18, 1922. p. 1. Retrieved March 5, 2019 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  4. ^ "Edison Pilots First Electric Train Over Orange-Hoboken Route". The Passaic Daily News. September 22, 1930. p. 5. Retrieved January 31, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  5. ^ "QUARTERLY RIDERSHIP TRENDS ANALYSIS" (PDF). New Jersey Transit. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 19, 2013. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  6. ^ Kiefer, Eric (February 21, 2018). "How Many Riders Use NJ Transit's Hoboken Train Station?". Hoboken Patch. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
  7. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  8. ^ Carter, Barry (August 19, 2013). "An East Orange church in need of a miracle". nj. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
  9. ^ Monmouth County Listings, National Register of Historic Places. Accessed September 2, 2007.
  10. ^ East Orange New Jersey Transit Railroad Station Survey
  11. ^ New Jersey State Board of Assessors 1888, p. 58.
  12. ^ Whittemore 1896, p. 407.
  13. ^ "All Stations Accessibility Program FY24 Projects". Federal Transit Administration. May 28, 2024.
  14. ^ "Biden-Harris Administration Announces $343 Million to Modernize Transit Stations, Improve Accessibility Across the Country" (Press release). Federal Transit Administration. May 28, 2024.
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Media related to Brick Church (NJT station) at Wikimedia Commons