Bringing It Home: NYS Curriculum Connections Historical Society of the Town of Warwick Historic Maps & Primary Documents by Sue Gardner


	Original railroad station before it was replaced by the current station in 1890.
	Environment: Note Martin house on top for insect control.

	Extract from “Lehigh & Hudson River Railway Scrapbook” by Marty Feldner,
	http://lhr.railfan.net/

	Founding of The Warwick Valley Railroad
	The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway Company is an important bridge line between New England and several of the larger railroad systems of the East. This important link had its beginning as an eleven mile railroad between Warwick, N. Y. and Greycourt, N. Y. to transport the products of the fertile Warwick Valley in the southern part of Orange County, New York, not far from the New Jersey border. The farm products of this prosperous agricultural and dairying region had for many years, prior to transportation by rail, been hauled thirty miles overland in wagons to Newburgh on the Hudson where the shipments were loaded on boats and conveyed to New York City. In the early 1840's the New York and Erie Railroad was built through Orange County and in 1852 through direct acquisition this was extended into Jersey City which gave a more direct and much quicker route to the New York City market. This through route prompted a meeting of prominent farmers and merchants of Warwick, N. Y. in 1859, and resulted in the organization of the Warwick Valley Railroad Company. The charter to build a railroad from Warwick, N. Y. to Greycourt, N. Y. where a connection could be made with the New York and Erie, as well as its New- burgh branch, was granted in 1860.
	It was not long after the close of the Civil War when extensive iron ore mines were opened near the New York-New Jersey State line, a few miles west of Warwick. The ore was taken by wagon to Warwick, N. Y., thence by rail over the Warwick Valley Railroad and the New York and Erie Railroad to Greenwood Furnace, New York now known as Arden. This was a new source of revenue for the Warwick Valley Railroad and was a favorable addition to the revenue they had been receiving from the transportation of farm and dairy products.