Fairmount Avenue (NJT station)

Fairmount Avenue
The former Fairmount Avenue Station.
Location	Fairmount Avenue and Temple Avenue Hackensack, New Jersey
Owned by	New Jersey Transit (until 1983)
Line(s)	Pascack Valley Line
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	1 (formerly 3)
Other information
Station code	775 (Erie Railroad)
Fare zone	5
History
Opened	March 4, 1870; 147 years ago (1870-03-04)
Closed	1983 (1983)
Services
Preceding station   NJ Transit Rail   Following station North Hackensack toward Spring Valley Pascack Valley Line Anderson Street toward Hoboken Preceding station   Erie Railroad   Following station Anderson Street toward Pavonia Terminal New Jersey and New York Railroad North Hackensack toward Haverstraw

Fairmount Avenue is a former New Jersey Transit rail station on the Pascack Valley Line. The station was one of three rail stations in Hackensack, New Jersey, United States, and was located at Fairmount Avenue and Temple Avenue. The Essex Street and Anderson Street stations are also located in Hackensack. The station house was built in 1870 as part of the extension railroad for the Hackensack and New York Railroad on a track extension from Anderson Street in Hackensack. The line became part of the Erie Railroad in 1896 and New Jersey Transit in 1983.

The former Fairmount Avenue station was located at the intersection of Fairmount Avenue and Temple Avenue in the city of Hackensack, New Jersey. The building was centered in the middle of Fairmount Park and had access from Temple Avenue, where crossing gates were visible. The three tracks and gravel platform split the station from a large parking lot nearby. There was also a small gravel parking lot on the southern side of the station. To the north of the station was a stone interlocking tower at the intersection with Main Street. The Fairmount Avenue Station had a shingled-roof with a large, angled canopy, and a beige wood siding. There was one asphalt platform servicing all three tracks, and the long canopy over the platform was made in similar design to Newark's 4th Street Station. The beige wood was also given green window-frames to benefit the look. The station contained two mainline tracks, the northbound one, and the nearby team track. There was also a third track in the opposite side working as a partial freight yard.

The original alignment of the Fairmount Avenue station date back to the chartering of the Hackensack and New York Railroad in 1856 by David P. Patterson of Hillsdale and other local investors. Their intent in creating the rail line was to help maintain a steam-powered train line in the Pascack Valley and have future ambitions to build the system northward. Construction on the new 21-mile (34 km) long line began in 1866, with trains heading from New York City to the Passaic Street station in Hackensack. Although Hackensack was not a large hub, there were several rail lines serving the city, including the New Jersey Midland Line (now the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad) with stops at Main Street (at the Mercer Street intersection) and at Prospect Avenue. During the 1860s, service was extended to north, terminating at Essex Street. Although most Hackensack and New York trains ended at Passaic Street, service was extended northward on September 5, 1869, when that stop was abandoned in replacement for Anderson Street. By 1870, the tracks had been extended northward to Hillsdale, and public service began on the line on March 4 of that year. Trains terminated at Hillsdale with fare of only $0.75 (1870 USD), but just one year later, the extension northward. The service was extended northward to the community of Haverstraw, New York, and in 1896, the rail line was leased by the private company to the Erie Railroad.