Subtitle: Today, April 6, 2019, as part of the festival of Bezmas,
a few of us joined a tour of the original Ithaca Train Station,
which until recently was the Ithaca Bus Station, and is currently unused.
Originally the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Station was
built in 1912 and was a stop on a line between Ihtaca and Owego.
The railroad line carried passengers until 1942, and freight until 1956.
Then it was a bus station.
The tour was hosted by Gene Endres, a member of The History Center in
Tompkins County and a member of the Cornell Railroad Historical Society..
I wanted to test out a new wide angle lens I recently bought (a Tokina
11-20mm DX). So I took a bunch of pictures. Here are 45.
000-DSC_2099: Rob and Dianne near the train station ticket counter.
001-DSC_2101: The train station ticket counter.
002-DSC_2102: Bez and Shoshe arrive at the train station.
003-DSC_2103: Gene Endres, the tour guide.
004-DSC_2104: The ornametation in the walls include Cornell's colors
(red and white).
005-DSC_2106: More ornamentation with Cornell colors in it.
006-DSC_2107: Outside the train station (on the western side).
007-DSC_2108: Gene Endres talking about the train station (from the northern
side).
008-DSC_2109:
009-DSC_2110: The flagpole was called the Cornell flagpole (where they flew a
flag on days when there would be rowing racies).
010-DSC_2111: My reflection, as well as Rob and Dianne's, can be seen in the
window.
011-DSC_2113: Gene Endres talking on the eastern side of the Train Station.
012-DSC_2114: Facing north, looking at the northern half of the station.
013-DSC_2115: The tour group listening to the history of trains in Ithaca.
014-DSC_2116: Bez taking a picture of the crowd.
015-DSC_2117: The (former) Ithaca Train Station.
016-DSC_2118: The Tompkins Trust Company bank is almost connected to the
train station to the south. Although it's a fairly new building, it was
designed to have a similar architectural style so it wouldn't clash with
the station.
017-DSC_2119: There is a pay phone outside of the train station. We wondered
how many people understand the concept a phone with wires and that you
have to pay to use (with coins!).
018-DSC_2125: Inside the station, there are some nautical-themed ornamentation
on the walls.
019-DSC_2126: More sailing boals by the water "fountain".
020-DSC_2127: Some cool shields on the wall of the train station.
021-DSC_2130: Behind the ticket counter.
022-DSC_2132: The cigarette box repurposed into a pen holder behind the ticket
counter.
023-DSC_2133: An empty safe in the luggage/freight room on the south side
ofhte station.
024-DSC_2135: The door to the luggage/freight room.
025-DSC_2139: A cute poster on luggage with the "baggage buddy" mascot.
The copyright on it is from 1996.
026-DSC_2140: Rob taking a picture of...opaque glass?
027-DSC_2141: The marble counter outside the operations office at the train
station.
028-DSC_2142: In the operations office, there were some old-ish things in the
cabinets and desk draws.
029-DSC_2143: In the draw was a card from 1963 that was a water and
sewar bill for $39.31. Plus an instruction guide for a "card dialed"
touch-tone telephone.
030-DSC_2144: An old document that looks to be about some of the "new"
freight laws of 1947.
031-DSC_2145: Baggage tags. I think for the railroad, not the buses.
032-DSC_2146: A wiring box (not a fuse box!) in the operations office. This
really looked like something out of an escape room.
033-DSC_2147: There's a paper on the box that might describe the building's
wiring. While it looks sort of like it's burnt, it's probably water damage
034-DSC_2149: A close-up of some of the wires coming down into the box.
THe black one in the center has the word "hazard" on it.
035-DSC_2150: I thought it was a bell at first, but just a junction
with wires goign down to an outlet.
036-DSC_2151: This one's cool. Shoshe discovered that in the coat closest
in the operation's room, there was writing on the walls. It's not graffiti
but more like notes.
037-DSC_2152: Some record temperatuers from the 1930s are visible here
including -24°F on Feb 9, 1934..
038-DSC_2155: A note about jobs being abolished and that the February 1934
temperature broke the record for all time low.
039-DSC_2157: More old documents that were in a drawer.
040-DSC_2159: A safe in the operations room.
041-DSC_2160: The lable on the safe.
042-DSC_2162: Frank tends the ticket counter.
043-DSC_2164: The pay phone provides some free calls.
044-DSC_2165: Dianne is pretty suspicious of the "blessing line",
as the recording says Paster Bob appreciates her call but can use
some financial help.