Saving the Oakdale, Long Island, train station
Stuart Kurtz
Writer and Copywriter with one-of-a-kind Perspective
Here is the response of MaryAnn Almes, President of the Oakdale Historical Society.
Sam Desmond recently put OHS and our quest to National Landmark the Oakdale Railroad Station and Freight Depot on the COVER of Suffolk County News. In the article, she listed an MTA contact person, Nick Fasano. One of our readers, Stuart Kurtz, took the time to put pen to paper and write Mr. Fasano. With his permission, here is the email he sent to him. Eloquent and poignant, it shares our sentiments beautifully. Thank you for taking the time. Here's to hoping that others take up a pen and do the same.
Mr. Nick Fasano
Long Island Railroad
Dear Mr. Fasano:
As someone who once raised funds for The National Trust for Historic Preservation, I know the value of saving our history. Every year the Trust would put out a list of "America's 11 Most Endangered Places." We would tout the value of saving homes in New Orleans harmed by Formosan termites, and The Bridge of Lions in Saint Augustine, which we indeed saved. On a tour of our oldest city, I saw that the bridge had been returned to its former glory and was truly an asset to the old town. Even though it isn't as old as the Spanish fort there and it is utilitarian, it is a thing of beauty.
So too is the Oakdale train station. It is, yes, a place to buy a ticket, to wait for your train, and to get out of the rain. But it is also a place of civic pride. A building can represent the values of the community in which it sits; it can be a timeline from the past to the present. And it can instill a town with art - architecture is not just for space; it is also an art.
In the Long Island Advance today, Sam Desmond relates how Maryann Almes, president of the Oakdale Historical Society, contacted The National Trust in the hope of getting the station advanced to that same list of the 11 most endangered places. Assemblyman Gandolfo and Legislator Piccirillo are involved with this effort, as Desmond writes.
The station welcomes the visitor with its Romanesque Revival giant arch and covered loggias protect the visitor from the sun or rain, but they also offer visual comfort. There is a double-hipped roof, which juts out for the loggia, maybe suggesting the long horizontal expanses of Long Island.
There is everything going for saving this modest yet dignified station, and I hope the parties involved, including the LIRR, will be able to do just that. Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Stuart Kurtz