RAILROAD STATIONS
South Eighth Street: Built September 1868 and opened for service November 4, 1868. In July 1869 the station must have been adequate for two or three trains, for, in a letter of complaint, we read: "… the intersection of South Eighth Street and Kent Avenue is impassable … by reason of the frogs and switches and the crossing rails of the South Side RR. The company has abolished the sidewalk and occupy the space with trucks and wagons unloading directly into their depot."
In April 1872 the depot was enlarged by an extension of the roadbed on heavy framework resting on piles to the bulkhead line of the river, nearly 100 feet in length, and giving standing for several additional cars.
In a description of the waterfront in 1872 we read: "The South Side Railroad depot is deserving of mention; it was originally a depot building two stories high, in which are sitting rooms, freight and ticket offices on the first floor for the accommodation of passengers, while on that above are the several offices of the corporation. Early in summer a covered depot to shelter the cars was erected and has just been completed. This rests upon piles and partly extends over the ferry piers."
South Eighth Street station was abandoned on February 29, 1876, the last train pulling out on the twenty-sixth. All rails were removed during May 1876. Part of the old depot buildings were still standing in 1922.
Bushwick: Opened July 18, 1868. The South Side RR used the old Schenck farmhouse of Revolutionary vintage for its office; a large marshalling yard was laid out but no depot was erected during South Side days. No effort was made to improve Bushwick station until it became the new terminus in March 1876. The company then planned a large covered passenger depot, additional freighthouses and side tracks to permit horse cars to drive into the covered station area and unload passengers. In 1876 toward the end of South Side days, the Eagle remarked: "The depot, as at present it appears, is an unprepossessing object, and were it not for the tracks, trucks and railroad carriages in the vicinity, might be mistaken for a dog kennel, for a dog kennel would most unjustly suffer by the comparison. It is the meanest of many mean buildings in the neighborhood and its size dwarfed by an ordinary railroad car; it has brown weather-beaten boards; in front of it is a little platform, and alongside this the train stands. Altogether it might do for a wayside station ."
Changes in management postponed the planned improvements, but rebuilding began in May 1877 under the Poppenhusens.
