FIRST ERIE DINING-STATIONS.
The first building intended to be used for dining purposes
along the line of the Erie was built at what is now Sterlington,
about twenty miles from Piermont, before the railroad was yet
finished as far as that. It was put up by speculative persons
connected with the Company, on the belief that after people had
travelled twenty-four miles by boat and twenty miles by rail,
they would be hungry, and welcome a spot where they could get
something to eat. The building was a pretentious affair architecturally,
but not large. But it proved that travellers did not seem to have
taken on appetite enough after a trip of that distance to patronize
the pioneer dining-place, and it was never used for the purpose
for which it was built. The Peter Turner place, at Turner's Station,
some miles further on, was apparently just the right distance
from New York to have whetted the appetite of the patrons of the
road, and their demands made of this place the first dining-station
to come into existence along the railroad. For years the wants
of the travelling public were catered to so sumptuously and excellently,
that Turner's became famous the country over as a dining-station,
in spite of the unpretentious, homely appearance of the caravansary
where the meals were served; and all through trains, east and
west, that arrived there anywhere near a suitable meal time, stopped
there for meals. Peter Turner died, and his son James succeeded
to the famous old dining-saloon. During Nathaniel Marsh's administration,
the building of an immense dining-station at Turner's was begun
by the Company, and it was completed during the administration
of President Berdell. It was of brick. It was three stories high
and 400 feet long, situated between the east and westbound tracks,
fifty yards east of the old Turner's dining-saloon. The railroad
offices were also in the building, which was fitted up sumptuously
as a hotel as well as a dining-saloon. The dining-room would seat
200 guests, and the lunch-counter was of proportionate capacity.
There was not another such place on the line of any railroad in
the country. Experienced hotel men at various times leased it
and conducted it, but never at a profit. It was a favorite retreat
of James Fisk, Jr.'s, who, with special train-loads of boon companions,
chiefly of the gentler sex, was wont to entertain lavishly there
in his palmy days in Erie. The place was called the Orange Hotel.
After the days of Gould and Fisk, the glory of the famous dining-place
began to wane, and it was rapidly becoming a spot of solitude,
amid splendor, when, on the night of December 26, 1873, it was
completely destroyed by fire. The building and its furnishings
had cost $350,000. For years its charred ruins disfigured the
landscape thereabout, and, during Jewett's time, were at last
cleared away. To-day the spot is covered with railroad tracks,
and not a thing remains to remind this generation of the splendor
and folly that once ruled there.
The second dining-saloon on the Erie was at the Port Jervis
station. It was started soon after the railroad reached there.
Its first proprietors were J. W. Meginnes and James Lytle. Lytle
retired from the firm, and Meginnes ran it until 1857, when he
died. His widow conducted it a short time, when S. O. Dimmick
took it and ran it until Port Jervis was abandoned as a regular
dining-place in 1869.
Narrowsburg became a dining-place when the railroad was opened
to Binghamton. It was conducted by Major Fields, and acquired
much fame by the fact that the grand excursion over the railroad,
May 14, 1851, on the occasion of the opening to Dunkirk, dined
there en route, on that day. At that dinner, President
Fillmore and members of his cabinet, Daniel Webster among them,
and scores of other notable men of that day, sat down, and made
the wayside dining-hall echo with their after-dinner eloquence.
Narrowsburg became a famous Eriedining-place, and was conducted
later by Commodore C. Murray and afterward by his sons, C. H.
and H. C. Murray, for many years, when the Company abandoned Narrowsburg
as a regular dining-station.
Later, Deposit became a dining-station, and Owego, Elmira,
Hornellsville, Olean, and Dunkirk had large depot dining-saloons
for many years after 1851, Susquehanna was made a leading and
regular dining-place early in the 60s, and the Company erected
the immense and costly station building there. This dining-saloon
was one of the notable ones of the country for more than a quarter
of a century. The Erie dining-saloon at Hornellsville also became
famous, and is remembered to this day by travellers for its delicious
waffles.
The coming of the dining and hotel cars on the road destroyed
the general usefulness of the station dining-saloons. They became
unprofitable, and the greatest of them now depend chiefly on their
lunch counters.
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