Wantagh Railroad Station Museum

The Wantagh Railroad Station Museum offers a collection of static exhibits along with two historical buildings and a rail car and is staffed by experienced local historians who are happy to answer questions. The museum was created during an era when many historic train stations were being demolished across the country. The museum was also created at a moment when the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) was modernizing and elevating rail lines in the mid-twentieth century. To save the Wantagh Station, which was built in 1885. from the fate of many other former stations, the Wantagh Preservation Society was established in 1965. With their leadership, Wantagh Station was moved the next year to a nearby park to avoid its destruction. In the next three years, the historic depot underwent restoration. LIRR donated the 1912 train car nicknamed "Jamaica" to the museum in 1972. The small frame building is a circa 1905 shack that once served as the Wantagh Post Office. The Wantagh Railroad Complex was listed in the National Register in 1983 and is still in the care of the Wantagh Preservation Society. The museum is open Sunday afternoons from mid-April to mid-November.

Wantagh was previously known as Ridgeway. The village raised funds to build a small railroad station on the South Side Railroad in 1875. The rail line was acquired by the LIRR in 1881. The Wantagh Railroad Station that has been preserved was built in 1885 just to the east of the older station. Hotels, a general store, and the Post Office were clustered near the rail stop, since the mail came via the trains. The train helped local market farmers get their farm products to the New York City markets and brought visitors from the city out to newly-developed Long Island resorts. Long Island residents could commute into the city for work via train, spurring the expansion of year-round housing near the lines by the turn of the century.

The Wantagh Railroad Station was in use until 1965 as a rail station. The building was moved five blocks north from the Ridgeway stop to Nassau County-owned land in 1966 and restored by the county and the Wantagh Preservation Society. The building was documented in 1982 for listing in the National Register. The one-story wood frame structure's beige clapboarding is accented in green wooden trim. The main (north) bay features a projecting window bay facing the tracks and flanked by two doors. The original layout was two rooms, with the main waiting area plus ticket office in the east room and the baggage room to the west. The south side contains one central door and the two ends of the building have a single window. The gable roof is wood shingle with a decorative wooden trim. The ticket window bay was extended in the 1920s; restrooms were added in 1930s in the original baggage area and an addition to the west provided more space for baggage. A low wooden platform borders the station, protected by roof overhangs. The restored station served as the headquarters of the Wantagh Preservation Society by 1982 and is the only rail station from the Nassau County portion of the South Shore line to survive. Historic photographs of turn-of-the-century Wantagh are diplayed inside the station.

The railroad car "Jamaica" that was moved to the site in 1972 sits on a section of railroad track northwest of the station. The Jamaica is a parlor car built for the LIRR in 1912 and reconfigured into an observation car in the 1930s, with nifty features like ice hatches as an early type of air conditioning. The seven-room interior features a 9-by-13-foot solarium on one end, leading to a brass-railinged observation platform. The car also held three state rooms, a dining room, a galley, and servants' quarters. The state rooms held bunk beds, closets, cabinets, and restrooms. A hallway runs the length of the car with windows on each side. The metal interior walls of the car were finished to look like wood, with hand-painted pinstriping on the upper walls and ceiling. The car was used until 1968 and later donated to the Wantagh Preservation Society.

The small wooden shed style building on the lawn south of the station was moved to the museum property and was still under restoration as of 2017. It served as the village's Post Office from 1907 to the mid-1920s. The last postmistress in this building was Gertrude Ballem.

O'Brien, Austin. Dorko, Mary Jo. NRHP Nomination of Wantagh Railroad Complex, Wantagh, N.Y.. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1983.

Wantagh Preservation Society. Wantagh Museum , Wantagh.LI. January 1st 2017. Accessed May 5th 2021. https://www.wantagh.li/museum/.