Southern Hempstead Branch

The Southern Hempstead Branch was a branch of the Long Island Rail Road from Valley Stream to Hempstead. It was established in 1870 and abandoned in May 1879, and is not the same route as the current West Hempstead Branch.^[1][2]

Hempstead residents were annoyed with the bad service provided by the LIRR on their Hempstead Branch, and planned the New York and Hempstead Plains Railroad, which was to cross the South Side Railroad at Valley Stream and end at the 65th Street Ferry in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, but only built east of Valley Stream. There were also plans to extend the line eastward into what is today North Massapequa.^[3] Reliant on the South Side, the two companies often shared equipment. A railroad supplier named Pusey became president in 1871, but failed to do what he had promised and was soon discharged. Without notifying the company, the bondholders illegally appointed receiver Seaman Snediker, a friend of Pusey's, under foreclosure, and they took the railroad on January 8, 1872. The owners discovered this the next morning and took control of the railroad's only locomotive. The South Side leased the NY&HP in June 1873.^[4]

List of stations

Station/ location	Station link	Miles (kilometers) to Penn Station	Notes	History
Begin at Montauk Branch.
Valley Stream				Built October 28, 1867 by the SRRLI. Still exists today as an LIRR hub.
Bridgeport			At Franklin Avenue, Malverne. No station building here.	1870-1879
Norwood			Hempstead Avenue at Cornwell Avenue. No station building here.	1870-1879
Hempstead			On west side of Greenwich Street midway between Front Street and Peninsula Boulevard.	1870-1879. Converted into a skating rink, but was burned to the ground in early July 1888.
The entire line was abandoned in May 1879.

References

1. ^ Felix Reifschneider's History of the Long Island Railroad: Part 2, Page 14 (1925; courtesy of "The Third Rail.net")
2. ^ Felix Reifschneider's History of the Long Island Railroad: Part 2, Page 15 (1925; courtesy of "The Third Rail.net")
3. ^ [Beers Atlas of Long Island, 1873]
4. ^ Ron Ziel and George H. Foster, Steel Rails to the Sunrise, ©1965

External links

• 1873 Southern Hempstead Branch map (Unofficial LIRR History Website)