Union Station (Chatham, New York)

Chatham
Union Station, Chatham, New York, April 2009
Location	99 Depot Square Chatham, New York 12037
Owned by	Town of Chatham
Line(s)	New York and Harlem Railroad, Boston and Albany Railroad, Rutland Railroad
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	1
History
Opened	1887
Closed	March 22, 1972 (passengers) March 1976 (freight)
Services
Former services   Preceding station   New York Central Railroad   Following station Chatham Corner toward Albany Boston and Albany Railroad Main Line East Chatham toward Boston Ghent toward New York City Harlem Division Terminus Payn's toward Hudson Hudson Branch
Union Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Show map of New York Show map of the US
Location	99 Depot Square Chatham, New York
Coordinates	42°21′43″N 73°35′49″W / 42.36194°N 73.59694°W / 42.36194; -73.59694Coordinates: 42°21′43″N 73°35′49″W / 42.36194°N 73.59694°W / 42.36194; -73.59694
Architect	Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
Architectural style	Richardsonian Romanesque
NRHP Reference #	74001225
Added to NRHP	May 1, 1974

Union Station served the residents of Chatham, New York from 1887 to 1972 as a passenger station and until 1976 as a freight station. It was the final stop for Harlem Line trains. It had originally served trains of the Boston and Albany Railroad, then the New York Central Railroad and the Rutland Railway. It served as a junction for service that radiated to Rensselaer, New York on the northwest, Hudson, New York to the southwest, northeast in southwestern Vermont and Pittsfield, Massachusetts and New York City to the south.

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and currently serves as a branch office of the National Union Bank of Kinderhook, NY. Though it no longer serves as a train station, the rail line alongside it is still a very-active mainline for freight rail.

Before the station house was built rail service to Chatham started on December 21, 1841 when the first portion of the Albany and West Stockbridge Railroad was put into service between Greenbush (east of Albany) and Chatham. The Harlem Extension of the New York and Harlem Railroad was built to Chatham by 1869. By late 1870 a series of company mergers led to the formation of the Boston and Albany Railroad (B&A). In 1881 the B&A hired Henry Hobson Richardson to design several stations for the railroad. Richardson died unexpectedly in 1886 and the remaining station design work was transferred to the Boston-based architecture firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. They designed the Chatham Station which was opened for service along the B&A's Boston to Albany line in 1887. The Richardsonian Romanesque building features a Dutch gable roof with wide eaves and colonnade porticos that extend out east and west along the tracks over the low platform. The walls are made of lightly colored rusticated stone with window and door frames, sills, and lintels of contrasting brownstone. A prominent bow window faces trackside and once was used as part of the stationmaster's office.