Saturday, Nov. 13 was a day to stand back and enjoy the completion of Phase II in the restoration of the Oyster Bay Rail Road Museum located at the foot of Audrey Avenue in Oyster Bay. Chairman Ben Jankowski said, "The renovation of the exterior of the Oyster Bay Rail Road Museum is 70 percent complete. The work has been done with donated funds from the community, mostly in donations of $100 each." It's a grass roots movement with local residents, people interested in preservation and railroad fans contributing to the work.

Walking around the outside of the station house, he pointed to the brick, which has had many layers of paint removed to reveal the original material. The work was done by Walter DeGroot of DeGroot Historical Restoration Inc. "We are going to re-point the bricks and all the woodwork will be painted Essex green. The station exterior will look the same as it did in Theodore Roosevelt's time, between 1902 to 1907," said Mr. Jankowski.

The Friends of Locomotive 35 is a 401-c3 corporation and is also a New York State Charity, therefore all contributions are tax deductible, he added. The Friends have been raising funds by selling prints by Glen Cove resident Steve Cryan called Train Time in Oyster Bay. Mr. Cryan is a marine painter, and created the Oyster Bay prints to help raise funds for the museum. "We will be doing business as the Oyster Bay Rail Road Museum, which is under the auspices of the Oyster Bay Historical Society, to better identify it with Oyster Bay's heritage," said Mr. Jankowski.

They put an ad in the November issue of a national railroading magazine Classic Trains and have already received an order for a print from a reader in Indiana. Mr. Jankowski said there is no middleman taking something out of what they get in funding. "All the money goes directly into the project. We use all the money we get," he said.

Board member Dave Morrison, a former LIRR branch manager for the Oyster Bay line explained that the restoration project began in earnest in September of 2003 as the town began the process of taking over the station house. He said, "Phase I, was to take down the interior improvements made in 1963 by the LIRR. Phase II is dedicated to the exterior work on the building. Phase III is the interior work that needs to be done. We are now a New York State Landmark and are going for Federal Landmark designation."

There are still a few details to be completed: the papers for the transfer of the station house property are on Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto's desk waiting for his signature. It is hoped that will happen by the end of this year. "The railroad allowed us to do this work prior to the actual transfer with a 'Use Permit' so we could begin the needed repairs on the building."

Funding for the work was raised by Marie Knight, who chairs the Oyster Bay Station Restoration ad hoc committee, a group of people interested in having the station preserved and restored. The members include: Ben Jankowski, David Morrison, Tom Kuehhas the director of the Oyster Bay Historical Society, Jim Foote, John Collins, and Marie Knight. Ms. Knight acts as a liaison person for the committee, calling the contact people in the Town of Oyster Bay and the MTA. Funds were raised from Charles Dolan, Abraham Poznanski of Northern Bay Management and Steve Minicozzi of Cozy Enterprises for the restoration work.

Mr. Morrison gave the history of the repair work done on the Oyster Bay Rail Road station house. He said the 1963 LIRR station renovation involved putting in a second floor; putting in partitions for a waiting room; ticket office; train workers bathroom and locker area; and storage area. They removed the fireplace mantle and tiled the waiting room in green so it could be easily hosed down for cleaning. There was also a great deal of work done in closing up areas by putting in solid concrete block walls where doors and windows had been.

Last year about 15 firemen from the Oyster Bay Fire Company #1 used their firefighting skills to dismantle the interior improvements. The Town of Oyster Bay supplied five dumpsters to cart off the material. "That saved us a lot of money," said Mr. Morrison.

"The purpose of taking out the partitions was to allow the restoration architect to see what was here originally," he said. "There are a great many pictures of the exterior of the building so that between that information and their ability to see the arches over the existing windows and doors, they will have a good idea of what the building was originally like. The problem the restoration project is facing is knowing what the interior was like." They have a 1923 floor plan of the building, which shows where the windows and doors were and shows benches in the bay window facing the plaza as well as benches along the walls. It also shows the fireplace mantle outline. There are no existing photographs of the fireplace.

"We are sorely in need of information on the inside of the station prior to 1964," added Mr. Jankowski. "We have exhausted all of the regular areas of research. We are sure that somewhere in the community there are photos." They have asked some older residents for their knowledge of the fireplace but have received conflicting answers, one said it was brick and another said it was stone. "If anyone has a photo with the interior of the station in it, no matter how miniscule it appears, it will give us a wealth of information," he said.

Mr. Morrison said the Oyster Bay station is unique in that it has two bay windows, one on each side of the building. Traditionally there is only one, on the trackside so that the ticket agent can look out and see trains coming in either direction. "Having a bay window streetside as Oyster Bay does is unique. It is in a beautiful location with the Oyster Bay waterfront in view and has a historic significance as the home station of President Theodore Roosevelt. An important architect designed the original building, Bradford Lee Gilbert who worked in the late 19th century and early 20th century. He designed the second Grand Central Station in New York City in 1898. It was demolished in 1910 to make way for the present Grand Central Station. He was also the architect for the Southampton LIRR station although it is entirely different than the Oyster Bay station. While they are the only two railroad stations that have Oyster shells in their design, the Southampton station has real shells imbedded in the stucco walls," he said. In Oyster Bay the shells were imprinted in the stucco material. He has an original photograph of the outside of the station that shows the door was flanked with glass panels with small leaded glass diamond shaped pieces.

Besides the 1963 renovation, the building was renovated in 1902 to make it ready for being the station used by Theodore Roosevelt, then president of the United States. The original building was erected in 1889. They have discovered a drawing of the original building, which had a port cochere on the street side. In 1902 the porte-cochere was removed and the station canopies were put up along the tracks to give shelter to travelers.

Mr. Morrison said, "The platform canopies were really long, and we would like to restore them to about 25 to 30 feet on the west side and 10 to 15 feet on the east side so people will at least get a flavor of what it looked like. There's not enough room for all of it"

Mr. Morrison said they went to the Stony Brook University Library where Robert Emory, a LIRR conductor has donated a file of material on the railroad. He wrote that the porte-cochere was demolished in 1941 and that in 1964 the LIRR heavily renovated the interior of the building and removed doorways. The key dates for the station house are 1889 when it was built; 1902 when it was renovated for TR; 1941 when the platform canopies were demolished; 1964 when the LIRR renovated the interior of the building. Now 2003 can be listed as when the interior partitions were removed and the roof fixed and the paint removed from the brickwork and the wooden trim repaired and painted following the original colors. They still have to finish cleaning up the brickwork. "We will use a non-invasive material to blast the brick clean of the white haze that remains in some areas." James Foote explained that brick has a glaze on it that keeps out water. That glaze is missing from much of the brick and will have to be re-applied to keep water from getting in and crumbling it.

Mr. Morrison has a photograph that shows where the platform sheds were attached to the building. Pointing to that photograph he said, "Fortunately the chimney is as is with its fancy brickwork. The roof dormers are in pretty much the same shape."

Although Mr. Morrison has discovered a great deal about the Oyster Bay station, he said, "I think there's a lot to be found still. I and Gary Farkash went to the Queens Public Library and found an 1892 drawing of the station building with the porte-cochere in front and I found an 1889 LIRR annual report that had a notation that it had added branch station houses in Elmhurst and Oyster Bay. Before that 1902 was thought of as the date of the Oyster Bay Rail Road station, and even on the plaque outside," he said.

Mr. Morrison also has found a 1902 copy of the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper article that tells about the 1902 renovation. It said the building had a nice high arched ceiling of cedar wood. He said cedar is hard to get today, and it is very expensive. People nowadays obtain cedar wood from demolition sites.

Mr. Morrison said the article in 1902 also said the fireplace had a green tile hearth. "Gary Farkash and I uncovered the fireplace in 1998. I was the branch manager so it was all done with proper authority. We broke into the east waiting room wall. There was a May 17, 1964 LIRR timetable rolled up and thrown into the opening in the fireplace. So in 1964, one of the crewmen rolled it up and threw it in as a time capsule. Unfortunately they didn't take any pictures of it. It's a fascinating building," he said, looking up at the leaded glass windows and the keyhole designs in the upper floor walls.

He thinks the porte-cochere was in the middle of the building where the second bay window is now. That location became the trainmen's bathroom during the 1964 renovation. "The restoration architect will take samples of what is here so that he can tell what was in the original building and what was added later. That is the beauty of having the work done by an expert," said Mr. Morrison.

During the 2004-2005 part of the renovation the doors and windows will be reintroduced. Mr. Foote commented that "In 1964 lots of public buildings were made as maintenance-free as possible so you just had to hose it off." Plexiglas windows were put in on the trackside of the station.

Outside the building some of the roof trim was rotted. "Walter DeGroot has restored the wooden areas, patched and primed them and is in the process of painting the wood Essex green to preserve what's left," said Mr. Morrison. Now the restoration architect can see which bricks need to be replaced or repaired.

Basically, said Mr. Morrison "We need to raise funds for Phase III. We need to raise funds to pay for a preservation architect who can come in and say what is needed to be done inside and outside of the station: so he can draw up plans for the work." Donations for the 2004-2005 capital fund project should be made out to: Friends of Locomotive #35, Inc.; P.O. Box 335; Oyster Bay, NY 11771.

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