Dunton was a ground-level station on the Long Island Rail Road

Long Island Rail Road

The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...

's Main Line, Montauk Branch

Montauk Branch

The Montauk Branch is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch runs the length of Long Island, 115 miles from Long Island City on the west to Montauk on the east...

, and Atlantic Branch in Dunton, Queens, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It was closed in 1939 when the Atlantic Branch was placed in a tunnel east of East New York

East New York (LIRR station)

East New York is a station on the Long Island Rail Road's Atlantic Branch in East New York, Brooklyn, where that branch passes through the historic Jamaica Pass. It is located at ground level, in the median of Atlantic Avenue, and underneath the elevated main lanes of Atlantic Avenue, with one side...

.

History

The South Side Railroad of Long Island, which crossed the LIRR's Atlantic Branch at 130th Street, opened Van Wyck Avenue station on the south side of its line in June 1869, almost a year after the line opened. A depot was added in July 1870, and in May 1871 the name was changed to Berlin. The LIRR leased the South Side on May 3, 1876, and effective Sunday, June 25, 1876, the Berlin station was closed, with all South Side passenger trains from the west (Lower Montauk Branch) switching to the Atlantic Branch where they crossed. The depot was moved west to the Lefferts Boulevard crossing on the Atlantic Branch in 1878 and named Morris Grove.

Frederick W. Dunton, developer of Dunton, donated a station building to the LIRR. Local Atlantic Avenue rapid transit trains began to stop there, at the same place as the old Berlin station, by mid-1890. In April or May 1897, the depot was moved to the north side of the Atlantic and Montauk tracks, and a stop was established on the Main Line. With the sinking of the Atlantic Branch into a tunnel, the station closed on November 1, 1939.