Monthly Archives: August 2010

The End of a Railroad Line

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New York, Westchester & Boston Railway station at Port Chester, New York, 1930

On August 21, 1937, service ceased on the New York, Westchester & Boston Railway line, which despite its reference to Boston actually ran just from lower Manhattan to Port Chester, New York.  It was incorporated in 1872 (as the New York, Westchester & Boston Railroad) but the charter lay dormant until 1900, when investors formed the New York & Westchester and reorganized in 1904 as the NYW&B Railway.  The line was in direct competition with the omnipresent New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (better known as the New Haven Railroad), which controlled almost all railroad, trolley and steamship traffic in southern New England into New York City from 1872 to 1969, so the New Haven Railroad bought up all of the fledgling company’s stock and made it into a showcase of elegant stations, bridges and viaducts.  Unfortunately such opulence was unsustainable and the line was never able to turn a profit.  It closed in 1937, its property was auctioned off in 1942, and its locomotives and cars were scattered to the four winds.

A fantastic website giving the full history of this line is at http://nywbry.com/index.php.

Archives & Special Collections has Board of Directors minutes and financial records of the NYW&B Ry., as part of the  New York, New Haven & Hartford Records, an enormous collection of administrative, real estate, financial and legal records of the railroad and its predecessor companies.

Alfred Gulley Dies

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Alfred Gulley, seen in a photo from the 1917-1918 Nutmeg Yearbook, was a professor of horticulture at Connecticut Agricultural College for 23 years.

 

Just one month after turning 69, Alfred G. Gulley died on August 16, 1917.  He had been a professor of horticulture at Connecticut Agricultural College for 23 years.

Born July 15, 1848 in Dearborn, Michigan, by the time of his passing Gulley was in charge of the campus grounds, including supervisions of ornamental plantings and devising the layout of walkways and roads throughout the campus

Writing of Gulley in his annual report to the State Legislature, CAC President Charles L. Beach said he “was loved and respected by the faculty and students alike and … his life and character were an inspiration and example to the students with whom he came in contact and his judgment and council had much influence in shaping the development of the institution during its formative period.”

Soon after Gulley’s death, the Horticultural Building in which he taught was named in his honor.

The 1917-1918 Nutmeg Yearbook is dedication to Gulley:

  “As a token of our regard for him as a friend and in testimony of our admiration for him as a man and a scientist, this volume is respectfully dedicated by The Editors.”

Horticulture Hall and the ornamental gardens near it are seen in a photograph from 1917, the year Alfred Gulley died. The building was named for Gulley after his death.