October 2026
For many historic small towns throughout America, the railways were once the most efficient way to transport passengers and goods between cities and towns. The Town of Wawarsing, New York, was once a stop along the New York, Ontario and Western Railroad (NYO&W). The railroad and the rail lines are long-gone, but remnants still can be found scattered around the counties of America.
A small former railway station sits abandoned and deteriorating, encircled by overgrown vegetation, on the edge of a residential survey in the former hamlet of Port Ben. Opened on 22 December 1902, this small wood Tudor Revival station was once the Port Ben station for the NYO&W, along the division between Summitville and Kingston.
Founded in 1868, originally as the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad before changing its name, the railway line ran from New York City to Lake Ontario at Oswego.
The station is a single story, two-by-six-bay, wood frame building, set on a concrete foundation with a brick veneer wainscoting and a low pitched, slate shingled gable roof, with a brick chimney on the north elevation. The exterior is half-timbered beige stucco on a metal lath.
The interior features a passenger waiting area, ticket office and freight office. The lath and plaster walls features wainscoting, with wood door and window surrounds and fix wood benches for seating.
Passenger service along this line ceased in 1946, with freight service continuing until 1957, when the NYO&W Railroad declared bankruptcy and ceased operations. Unlike other NYO&W stations, like the Middletown station, which became a nightclub and office space, or the Cottekill station, which was converted to a private residence, the Port Ben station was simply left vacant and abandoned.
In 2000, the abandoned station and railway right-of-way were designated historic places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Sources: NYO&W Wawarsing Station | Facebook, Port Ben station – Wikipedia, History Happened Here.
