Napanoch Depot Restoration Project

The depot preserved here was built in 1903 by the New York, Ontario and Western Railway, which had opened its Ellenville-to-Kerhonkson branch a year earlier along the line of the recently abandoned Delaware and Hudson Canal — a stretch of the old canal still survives just west of the station. The O&W intended the stop for two very different kinds of traffic: tourists bound for Napanoch and inmates headed to the newly established prison next door, today's Eastern Correctional Facility. The New York City firm of Jackson, Rosencrans & Canfield designed the permanent Classical Revival building while a temporary station handled passengers. O&W passenger service ended in September 1953, the deteriorated domed roof gave way to the present tiled version, and the rails were pulled up in 1958, the year after the railway was liquidated. The station passed to the state corrections department, which owned the surrounding prison land, and was later renovated and reopened as a museum devoted to the building's past and the O&W. The restoration, led by Jeff Rubin, is documented by the Ontario & Western Railway Historical Society, and the station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.