10/11/2024
Geneva NY 🚂
The Lehigh Valley Railroad Station (Sherrill and Wilbur Streets) was built in 1893. The station would the railroad’s largest and most ornate station between Buffalo and New York City. Constructed by Lehigh railroad workers, it was designed by Ithaca architect Aldah Wood and featured a spacious dining room, large lunch counter, ticket office, waiting rooms, baggage room, kitchen, offices and staff sleeping quarters. To encourage weekend ticket sales the railroad ran special excursions to places like Ontario Beach, Niagara Falls, Atlantic City, and to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
The station was also the terminus of the Geneva City Trolley line, an interurban railroad which ran from the station to Jay Street from 1893 to 1925. The line of trees behind and to the west of the station marks the path of the old Lehigh tracks. Remnants of the lines’ bridge overpasses can be seen on Genesee Street, North Street and Route 14. Another legacy of the Lehigh line is the Italian population of Geneva. Many of the ancestors of the city’s Italian-American citizens came to Geneva to help build the Buffalo to Geneva line. Others immigrants came to work for the completed rail lines. The neighborhood surrounding the station was built to house many of these workers and was once known as Geneva’s Little Italy .
From Historic Geneva's Blog
We Were Here In 1898: Buildings and Places
June 2nd, 2023