Ramsey is one of two railroad stations operated by New Jersey Transit in the borough of Ramsey, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. Located on the Main Line and Bergen County Line, Ramsey station is also unofficially known as Ramsey – Main Street due to the opening of Ramsey Route 17 station to the north in 2004. The station contains two low-level side platforms.
Railroad service to the Ramsey section of Hohokus Township began on October 19, 1848 as one of two stations in the area. The nearby Westervelt–Ackerson House had a station known as Westervelt's. The Paterson and Ramapo Railroad began service between Jersey City and Suffern, where connection was made to the Erie Railroad main line. The station was built on land donated by Peter J. Ramsey, a local landowner. The Erie Railroad, who took over service, built a new depot at Ramsey in 1868.
History
Construction of the Paterson and Ramapo Railroad in 1848 cut through owned by Peter J. Ramsey, a local landowner in Franklin Township. Ramsey donated the land for the first railroad station in the area, known as Ramsey's. The first train arrived at Ramsey's on October 19, 1848. The construction of the railroad also led to the establishment of a post office in the area. After Ramsey's death in 1854, the land was sold to William Pullis, who turned 22 of the to John Dater, a local entrepreneur. Dater worked on opening a store and new structures in the area around Ramsey's station. A local hotel was constructed by David Valentine.
The construction of the Paterson and Ramapo Railroad helped influence the local strawberry industry in Bergen County during the 1840s. The railroad shipped strawberries for local farmers to New York City via Piermont. In 1847, the railroad offered strawberry special trains to help with the delivery of the fruit with nine strawberry cargo cars and two cars for those who wanted to sell their fruit in New York City. Locals in Paterson and Newark requested their own shipments of strawberries and the supply soon met the demand. By the 1850s, Ramsey and nearby Allendale had become the location of most strawberry patches, taking over from Hackensack.
As part of the high demand for strawberries after the American Civil War, the Erie Railroad, now operating the Paterson and Ramapo Railroad, built wooden boxcars that were painted white for the purpose of transporting strawberries. The Erie placed the special boxcars at the Allendale and Ramsey stations. However, the railroads strained the market in Bergen County, noting that the Erie advertised other places to start having their own strawberry farms. They also were delivering people who wanted to move to the area that bought the patches for housing. By the 1870s, the main strawberry crops were coming out of Maplewood and Irvington.
The Erie Railroad began installing two extra tracks from Ridgewood Junction to Suffern, New York in an eastward direction in 1899. As part of it the Ramsey depot would need to be moved as part of construction, along with the station at Ridgewood.
Main Street crossing (1927–1947) 1927–1930 The borough of Ramsey submitted a plan in April 1927 to widen Main Street through the municipality. The original plan would widen Main Street from the Erie Railroad crossing to Finch Plaza. The Borough Council hosted a meeting on August 9 to discuss the widening. At this meeting, the Borough Council decided that the property owners on Main Street would not be burdened with the construction park, but instead through taxpayers of the entire municipality. The widening proposal contained two different proposals to deal with the Main Street grade crossing of the railroad. The proposals both included making Main Street dead ends for a new crossing not at-grade. The railroad would get new overpass over Main Street, using an example of the ones in Ridgewood.
The Ramsey Citizen's Association held their own meeting on August 11. At their meeting, they discussed the proposal to widen Main Street from Franklin Turnpike to Cherry Lane. They felt that before endorsing any particular proposal, they wanted to know the railroad wanted to do with the Main Street grade crossing.
By November 1927, there was not much progress from the railroad on their plans for the Main Street crossing. The Citizen's Association created their own committee to work on improving the station plaza around Ramsey station. The Citizen's Association felt that passing riders did not get a positive impression of Ramsey because of the aged buildings that surrounded the station on Main Street. They felt that the best buildings offered in the borough were built by the Erie Railroad rather than any local architect. Charles Finch and Edgar DeYoe, the owner of a hotel on Main Street, offered they would help with structure demolition and build new parking lots and stores for people to use in Ramsey. The new committee would develop and design their own plans for a modern Ramsey and beautified station plaza.
Ramsey finished the widening of Main Street from Finch Plaza to the tracks of the North Jersey Rapid Transit line in November. However, any plans to widen from Finch Plaza to the Main Street grade crossing would be held off until Spring 1928 due to the plans to widen it rather than the east of Finch Plaza. By early January 1928, the Citizen's Association was in contact with the railroad about eliminating the Main Street crossing and construction of a new depot in the borough. The Citizen's Association held their annual meeting on January 26, 1928. The focus of the meeting was to work on replacing the railroad station and eliminating the Main Street crossing.
By March 1928, the borough council had over 50 options on what to do with Main Street and its grade crossing, but that any decision on what would happen depended on the decision making of the railroad. There was no information from the railroad to that point about their plans for the Main Street crossing by February 1929 and the Borough Council suggested it was time to arrange a conference with officials of the railroad to find out what their plans were.
1931 hearings
The plan continued on ice into January 1931, when the Borough Council got word that the New Jersey State Public Utilities Commission (PUC) would be holding a hearing on February 11, 1931 about the elimination of grade crossings in the state. Ramsey officials were in agreement that they should attend the Newark hearing with some plans. James Conklin, the Borough Engineer, and the county engineers had meetings about the proposed elimination of the Main Street crossing. However, they had different opinions on how to handle it. One was to make Main Street underpass the tracks. The other proposal was to depress the Erie Railroad tracks through Ramsey, resulting in Main Street crossing over. Conklin stated that he made arrangements between the county and Erie officials to discuss proposals on January 30, 1931.
Bergen County officials also did checks on the vehicle rate on the Main Street crossing. They stated that it was the 28th most used crossing in the county, resulting in 114 trains obstructing Main Street for 211 minutes in a 24-hour period. However, the preference of the state of New Jersey was to eliminate grade crossings on main lines first rather than branch lines, moving the Ramsey crossing to 12th in the county.
Ramsey officials were agreed on the idea that the railroad tracks through Ramsey should depressed from the current altitude. However, they determined that the short term relief would be unhelpful to people in Ramsey and suggested that the Erie Railroad main should cross on an overpass or Main Street overpass instead. This would involve a direct connection with Mechanic and Prospect Streets. Bergen County officials told Conklin that they would prefer that option over a full track depression. However, the PUC postponed the meeting to March 16.
The railroad noted at the March 16 hearing that they opposed the depression plan due to the expensive costs. Other proposals were offered by the borough, including using the site of a former hotel and building a ramp over the tracks near Carroll Street and the Main Street overpass, which met local opposition due to concerns about depressing property values along Main Street.
With a second hearing on the Main Street elimination set for April 9, the Borough Council held a meeting on April 1 to discuss their plans. Along with Conklin, Mayor John Sullivan, Borough Attorney Walter Weber and other Ramsey officials would be present at the meeting in Newark with two proposals: one each building a bridge crossing north or south of Main Street, with a final decision to be left to the railroad.
On August 27, the PUC announced that they were considering the elimination of 16 crossings at the cost of $3,481,580. This would include of $300,000 to eliminate the Main Street crossing in Ramsey.
Delays Despite the order from the Public Utilities Commission, the organization announced on October 21, 1932 that the crossing would not be worked on for at least one year. The PUC stated that the Route 2 crossing would be a higher priority. The Main Street crossing already had 24 hours per day watching of the gates and that the railroad was not guaranteed to eliminate that crossing at all. The railroad would not be able to pay for 50% of the cost of the grade crossing elimination and it factored into the decision.
The progress on the Route 2 crossing was slow in 1933 with a hearing set for September 27, 1933 with the PUC in Newark over the Island Road crossing in Ramsey. This would be closed because of the new Route 2 bridge and the made the Island Road crossing superfluous. Ramsey stated that they would oppose the closing of the Island Road crossing because of the lack of pedestrian crossing on Route 2 with the new bridge. As part of the opposition they would use it to demand the abolition of the Main Street crossing as well with keeping the Island Road one open. Despite their efforts, the Island Road crossing would be shut upon completion of the Route 2 bridge.
The borough restarted efforts on December 11, 1934. The Ramsey Borough Council and Mayor Sullivan received a letter from the local fire department about the Main Street crossing blocking firefighting efforts when a train was at the station when heading from the west side of Ramsey to the east. Mayor Sullivan noted that the Public Works Administration would have grants available to help get funding for the crossing elimination. They also decided to let the railroad kow about the situation and update the flagman absolute situations like that. Emmett Drew, the secretary of the Public Utility Commissioners, notified Ramsey Borough Council later in December that the Main Street crossing would be included in their list of projects for Public Works Administration grants. The Public Works Administration noted in a separate letter that the borough could not be guaranteed funding from the current set, but would be offered in the new funding if Congress provided it. As for the complaints from the fire department, the railroad stated that engineers would not be able to stop a train in time before the station when seeing the flagman to help clear the crossing.