History
East Williston's station house opened in in 1880. It originally contained a freight house and wooden platform shelters that were closed during the mid-20th Century. The canopies surrounding the station house began to sag by 1960, and the LIRR considered closing it as well as Albertson station, and combining the two stations in between, However after a great deal of community opposition, those plans were shelved, and East Williston's canopies were restored between 1965 and 1966. High level platforms were added in December 1982. These projects did little to keep the station house in stable condition, and it was closed on December 10, 1996. Since then, it has operated as little more than a pair of sheltered high-level platforms with ticket vending machines and handicapped access ramps. Efforts to preserve the original station house failed when it was found to be too structurally unstable, and it was razed on December 11, 2004. Some in the community have been considering building a whole new version of the original station house, but have instead opted for a decorative open-air shelter. The LIRR still uses an image of the former station house for their official website.
Third rail was installed from Mineola to East Williston because there were originally plans to electrify the entire Oyster Bay Branch, however this did not occur. It was also a convenient, less-busy location to turn back electric trains to Mineola, a service since made redundant by subsequent extensions of the electrification to Hicksville and beyond.
Read more about this topic: East Williston (LIRR Station)
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