Philipse Manor (Metro-North station)
Encyclopedia
The Philipse Manor Metro-North Railroad
station serves residents of Sleepy Hollow, New York
, United States
, via the Hudson Line
. Trains leave for New York City
every 25 to 35 minutes on weekdays. It is 25.7 miles from Grand Central Terminal
and travel time to Grand Central is as little as 38 minutes, with some locals taking 57 minutes. Trains of electric multiple units serve the station.
Built around 1910, the Tudorbethan architecture of the station's original has earned it a listing on the National Register of Historic Places
as an intact example of an early commuter rail station. It is the only station on the Hudson Line besides Poughkeepsie
to be so recognized.
octagonal structure of rock-faced granite
block with stone, stucco
and wood trim. It is built into the bluff created when the tracks were cut, and thus access to them was provided through the basement
, through doors which have since been bricked off.
The station's east facade is augmented with two gable
d portes-cocheres
projecting at oblique angles, each supported by a heavy granite pier. Trapezoid
al wings also jut from the narrow sides of the octagon. The loggia
across the facade has central round arched opening with a parapet
. This does not lead to an entrance, instead backing the fireplace
and its corbel
ed stone chimney
. The roof original used slate
, but this has been replaced with asphalt
shingle
s.
Inside, the fireplace uses several colors of granite, flanked with original iron radiator
s. It is complemented by dark oak matchboards over the stucco, laid to simulate paneling and form a dado
. Further ornamentation
includes a double frieze
at ceiling level.
The more modern station subsequently built by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
(MTA) consists of two long concrete, elevated side platform
s with dark-green painted steel shelters. Between them are the four tracks of this section of the Hudson Line, all with third rail
s. The inside tracks carry express trains, and diesel
-powered Amtrak and Metro-North trains bound for the non-electrified sections between Croton–Harmon and the northern end of the line at Poughkeepsie
, none of which stop at Philipse Manor. A green overpass
connects the two platforms.
in the late 19th century opened up the river towns in Westchester County for suburbanization
. It became possible for those of sufficient means to live in large houses amid the pastoral and scenic riverside, and accordingly villages like Irvington
, Tarrytown
and North Tarrytown (today's Sleepy Hollow) began to grow and develop.
Undeveloped areas along the railroad line were soon snapped up by developers who saw the possibilities. In 1900 one, John Brisben Walker, acquired the old Kingsland estate in the north of North Tarrytown and began subdividing
it. One of his selling points was the rail access, but this failed to materialize and Walker had to sell the property, now called Philipse Manor in a confused reference to nearby Philipsburg Manor House, and had to sell to William Bell, who was able to complete it. He made the rail service possible by building the station and presenting it to the railroad.
It remained in use throughout the private ownership of the railroad. When Metro-North was created in the early 1970s to assume passenger commuter operations of the then-bankrupt
Penn Central, it eventually closed the station house in favor of automated ticketing operations, and the main house fell into disrepair. The station has since been reused
as the Hudson Valley Writers' Center, which won an award from the Preservation League of New York State for its work on the station in 2005.
the MTA has been working to extend the platforms to accommodate eight-car trains and improve service and capacity. It is part of a $56 million program focused on all the Rivertowns stations. The agency expects it will be complete by 2010.
s, each eight cars long. The west platform next to Track 4 is generally used by southbound or Manhattan
-bound trains. The east platform next to Track 3 is generally used by northbound or outbound trains.
The Hudson Line has four tracks. The two inner tracks not next to either platform are used by express trains.
Metro-North Railroad
The Metro-North Commuter Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, or, more commonly, Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service that is run and managed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority , an authority of New York State. It is the busiest commuter railroad in the United...
station serves residents of Sleepy Hollow, New York
Sleepy Hollow, New York
Sleepy Hollow is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, about north of midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by the Philipse Manor stop on the Metro-North Hudson Line.Originally...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, via the Hudson Line
Hudson Line (Metro-North)
Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line is a commuter rail line running north from New York City along the east shore of the Hudson River. Metro-North service ends at Poughkeepsie, with Amtrak's Empire Corridor trains continuing north to and beyond Albany...
. Trains leave for 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...
every 25 to 35 minutes on weekdays. It is 25.7 miles from Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
and travel time to Grand Central is as little as 38 minutes, with some locals taking 57 minutes. Trains of electric multiple units serve the station.
Built around 1910, the Tudorbethan architecture of the station's original has earned it a listing on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as an intact example of an early commuter rail station. It is the only station on the Hudson Line besides Poughkeepsie
Poughkeepsie (Metro-North station)
The Poughkeepsie Metro-North Railroad station serves Poughkeepsie, New York and surrounding areas as the north end of the Hudson Line. It is also served by many Amtrak trains, which continue north to Albany and points beyond, and south to New York City's Pennsylvania Station. Trains leave for New...
to be so recognized.
Station
The main building (now not used for rail purposes) is a one-story hip-roofedHipped roof
Hipped roof can refer to:*A hip roof, a type of roof where all sides are sloped*A tented roof, a conical style of roof seen in Russian architecture...
octagonal structure of rock-faced granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
block with stone, stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
and wood trim. It is built into the bluff created when the tracks were cut, and thus access to them was provided through the basement
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
, through doors which have since been bricked off.
The station's east facade is augmented with two gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d portes-cocheres
Porte-cochere
A porte-cochère is the architectural term for a porch- or portico-like structure at a main or secondary entrance to a building through which a horse and carriage can pass in order for the occupants to alight under cover, protected from the weather.The porte-cochère was a feature of many late 18th...
projecting at oblique angles, each supported by a heavy granite pier. Trapezoid
Trapezoid
In Euclidean geometry, a convex quadrilateral with one pair of parallel sides is referred to as a trapezoid in American English and as a trapezium in English outside North America. A trapezoid with vertices ABCD is denoted...
al wings also jut from the narrow sides of the octagon. The loggia
Loggia
Loggia is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Minoan design. They are often a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall...
across the facade has central round arched opening with a parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
. This does not lead to an entrance, instead backing the fireplace
Fireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...
and its corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
ed stone chimney
Chimney
A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...
. The roof original used slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
, but this has been replaced with asphalt
Asphalt
Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...
shingle
Roof shingle
Roof shingles are a roof covering consisting of individual overlapping elements. These elements are typically flat rectangular shapes laid in rows from the bottom edge of the roof up, with each successive higher row overlapping the joints in the row below...
s.
Inside, the fireplace uses several colors of granite, flanked with original iron radiator
Radiator
Radiators are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in automobiles, buildings, and electronics...
s. It is complemented by dark oak matchboards over the stucco, laid to simulate paneling and form a dado
Dado (architecture)
In architectural terminology, the dado, borrowed from Italian meaning die or plinth, is the lower part of a wall, below the dado rail and above the skirting board....
. Further ornamentation
Ornament (architecture)
In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Large figurative elements such as monumental sculpture and their equivalents in decorative art are excluded from the term; most ornament does not include human figures, and if present they...
includes a double frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
at ceiling level.
The more modern station subsequently built by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York)
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the U.S...
(MTA) consists of two long concrete, elevated side platform
Side platform
A Side platform is a platform positioned to the side of a pair of tracks at a railway station, a tram stop or a transitway. A pair of side platforms are often provided on a dual track line with a single side platform being sufficient for a single track line...
s with dark-green painted steel shelters. Between them are the four tracks of this section of the Hudson Line, all with third rail
Third rail
A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost...
s. The inside tracks carry express trains, and diesel
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
-powered Amtrak and Metro-North trains bound for the non-electrified sections between Croton–Harmon and the northern end of the line at Poughkeepsie
Poughkeepsie (Metro-North station)
The Poughkeepsie Metro-North Railroad station serves Poughkeepsie, New York and surrounding areas as the north end of the Hudson Line. It is also served by many Amtrak trains, which continue north to Albany and points beyond, and south to New York City's Pennsylvania Station. Trains leave for New...
, none of which stop at Philipse Manor. A green overpass
Overpass
An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...
connects the two platforms.
History
The construction of the Hudson River Railroad and its later acquisition by the New York CentralNew York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
in the late 19th century opened up the river towns in Westchester County for suburbanization
Suburbanization
Suburbanization a term used to describe the growth of areas on the fringes of major cities. It is one of the many causes of the increase in urban sprawl. Many residents of metropolitan regions work within the central urban area, choosing instead to live in satellite communities called suburbs...
. It became possible for those of sufficient means to live in large houses amid the pastoral and scenic riverside, and accordingly villages like Irvington
Irvington, New York
Irvington, sometimes known as Irvington-on-Hudson, is an affluent suburban village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, north of midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a station stop on the...
, Tarrytown
Tarrytown, New York
Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, about north of midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North Hudson Line...
and North Tarrytown (today's Sleepy Hollow) began to grow and develop.
Undeveloped areas along the railroad line were soon snapped up by developers who saw the possibilities. In 1900 one, John Brisben Walker, acquired the old Kingsland estate in the north of North Tarrytown and began subdividing
Subdivision (land)
Subdivision is the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known in the United States as a subdivision...
it. One of his selling points was the rail access, but this failed to materialize and Walker had to sell the property, now called Philipse Manor in a confused reference to nearby Philipsburg Manor House, and had to sell to William Bell, who was able to complete it. He made the rail service possible by building the station and presenting it to the railroad.
It remained in use throughout the private ownership of the railroad. When Metro-North was created in the early 1970s to assume passenger commuter operations of the then-bankrupt
Bankruptcy in the United States
Bankruptcy in the United States is governed under the United States Constitution which authorizes Congress to enact "uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States." Congress has exercised this authority several times since 1801, most recently by adopting the Bankruptcy...
Penn Central, it eventually closed the station house in favor of automated ticketing operations, and the main house fell into disrepair. The station has since been reused
Adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an old site or building for a purpose other than which it was built or designed for. Along with brownfield reclamation, adaptive reuse is seen by many as a key factor in land conservation and the reduction of urban sprawl...
as the Hudson Valley Writers' Center, which won an award from the Preservation League of New York State for its work on the station in 2005.
the MTA has been working to extend the platforms to accommodate eight-car trains and improve service and capacity. It is part of a $56 million program focused on all the Rivertowns stations. The agency expects it will be complete by 2010.
Platforms and tracks
The station has two high-level side platformSide platform
A Side platform is a platform positioned to the side of a pair of tracks at a railway station, a tram stop or a transitway. A pair of side platforms are often provided on a dual track line with a single side platform being sufficient for a single track line...
s, each eight cars long. The west platform next to Track 4 is generally used by southbound or Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
-bound trains. The east platform next to Track 3 is generally used by northbound or outbound trains.
The Hudson Line has four tracks. The two inner tracks not next to either platform are used by express trains.
Nearby
A short walk from the train station are these interesting sites:- Kingsland Point Park
- Phelps Hospital
- Philips Manor Restoration
- Keikut (Rockefeller House)
- Rockwood Hall Park
- Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
- The Old Dutch Church
- The old bridge at Sleepy Hollow