History
A station opened at New York Avenue (now Guy R. Brewer Boulevard) on June 24, 1890, when the local Atlantic Avenue rapid transit trains were extended from Woodhaven Junction through Jamaica to Rockaway Junction. The station was closed in 1905, but in response to complaints about the reopening of Jamaica Station on Sutphin Boulevard (primarily because 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 near the site of the "Old Jamaica Station," originally at ground level and eventually elevated between 1929 and 1931.
The building of the newer Jamaica Station led to commercial development around Sutphin Boulevard and the new station became the primary LIRR station in Jamaica. Eventually Union Hall Street patronage dropped due to its close proximity (about a half mile) to the Sutphin Blvd. station. Union Hall would close 1976, although in recent years a decorative wall mimicking a station house was placed over the bridge where the former Union Hall Street station used to be. 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 accurately a replacement for the former 160th Street elevated railroad station a block north on Jamaica Avenue, rather than for the ex-Union Hall Street LIRR station.
Read more about this topic: Union Hall Street (LIRR Station)
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