While many of our local train stations are relatively humble buildings, some of them were once much grander affairs. In 1895, the Long Island Rail Road decided to extend service from Bridgehampton to Amagansett, with plans to expand to Montauk. This required the construction of many new depot buildings. The Amagansett station built that summer was completed in August, just a few days after the East Hampton depot opened.
This original station survived only about 15 years. In 1910, a fire broke out in the baggage room, destroying the entire structure. This photo, from The East Hampton Star’s archive, shows the building erected to replace it. Built in 1911, this gambrel-roofed structure was in use until the early 1960s, when East Hampton Town leased it from the railroad, hoping to make it into a police headquarters, though those plans never came to fruition.
The building shown here was the station involved in the famous June 13, 1942, Nazi saboteur landing. After coming ashore at Atlantic Avenue Beach from a German submarine and failing to bribe a Coast Guardsman on his patrol there, the would-be saboteurs finally caught a train to New York City from this station.
In 1964, the year this photo was taken, the town ended its lease, and the railroad decided to demolish and replace the station with a much simpler shelter designed by the architect and Amagansett resident Alfred A. Scheffer (1894-1976), who was one of the driving forces behind the development of the Beach Hampton Club. After the demolition, salvageable brick and timber were sold to James Tyson, also of Amagansett. The new railroad shelter was finished by the fall of the following year and remains on the site to this day.
For those interested in learning more about the Nazi saboteurs’ landing, on Friday, June 13, at 6 p.m., the Amagansett Life-Saving Station will host a commemoration of the interception of the saboteurs.
Julia Tyson is a librarian and archivist in the Long Island Collection.
