Then and Now: The Bronxville Train Depot

Back in 1893 when Bronxville was still just a sleepy village, life was much more simple.

One example of this can be found in the home of Lancaster Underhill, which until 1903 actually served as the train station for the village as well.

By the turn of the century however, a new station house was completed, as can be seen in the archive photograph which was taken a few years later. However, as some of you may have noted, the original station house sat on the northbound side of the tracks.

Also in the photo looms a southbound train and you can see that there were no raised platforms back in the early 1900’s, and passengers had to be cautious as the trains rumbled in and out of the station.

Another station house, much larger in size, was completed in 1916 and still remains to this day the main train depot for Bronxville.

One reason for this was an increase in ridership the MTA experienced in the early 1900’s. More and more commuters needed to get down to Manhattan, so a larger station house on the southbound side of the tracks was necessary.

Eventually, the train depot on the northbound side of the tracks was razed in 1916, mostly due to the construction of the . However, the northbound side of the tracks inevitably found a use as a hub for transportation—not for trains, but for cars, as taxi services began setting up their cabs on the northbound side for commuters in the 1920’s.

Today, one can still see the Spanish style architecture of the Bronxville Station house, an effort in 1916 to match the beauty of the Hotel Gramatan and Arcade that stood across the tracks off Pondfield Road. Sadly all that remains of that complex is the Gramatan Arcade Center, which houses a few retail shops and the .

Be sure to click on the slideshow above to compare “Then and Now” pictures of The Bronxville Train Depot.