Union Hall Street (LIRR station)

Union Hall Street was a station on the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line and Montauk Branch at Union Hall Street at York College in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, United States.

[edit] History
A station opened at New York Avenue (now Brewer Boulevard) on June 24, 1890, when the local Atlantic Avenue rapid transit trains were extended from Woodhaven Junction through Jamaica to Rockaway Junction.[1] The station was closed between 1905 and 1911, but in response to complaints about the reopening of Jamaica Station on Sutphin Boulevard (primarily due to the fact that downtown core of Jamaica was centered around Union Hall Street, the site of "Old Jamaica"), the LIRR opened a new one a block away at Union Hall Street in 1913, when the tracks through Jamaica were grade-separated. Union Hall Street station was built on the site of the "Old Jamaica Station." It was originally built at-grade and then eventually elevated between 1929 and 1931.

The building of the newer Jamaica Station, however, led to the economic and commercial development around Sutphin Boulevard and thus the new station became the primary LIRR station in Jamaica. Eventually Union Hall Street patronage began to drop due to its close proximity, about(a fourth of a mile) from the Sutphin Blvd. station. Union Hall would close 1976, although a decorative wall mimicking a station house was placed over the bridge where the former Union Hall Street station used to be in recent years.[1] Twelve years after the station closed, the transportation needs in the vicinity of Union Hall Street were compensated with the Jamaica Center – Parsons/Archer Subway Station two blocks west of the former station, although this was more accuratley a replacement for the former 160th Street (BMT Jamaica Line) elevated railroad station, rather than for the ex-Union Hall Street LIRR station.