(rshsdepot) Re: Hackensack, NJ

["J. Henry Priebe Jr." <root_@_bluemoon.net>]

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/fire_destroys_historic_hackens.html

Thanks to Andy Brusgard of the NYSME for the URL.

Henry

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Fire destroys historic Hackensack train station
by Nyier Abdou/The Star-Ledger
Saturday January 10, 2009, 6:37 PM

A three-alarm fire tore through the historic Anderson Street train station in
Hackensack early this morning, destroying the local landmark and disrupting
service on NJ Transit's Pascack Valley line.

At least a dozen fire companies were called on to fight the blaze in the
one-story wood structure, which is located close to the railroad tracks, said
Capt. Ken Kalman of the Hackensack Fire Department. No one was there at the
time of the fire, which broke out around 6 a.m., Kalman said.

The fire spread to the three-story building next door, which has a tavern on
the ground floor and apartments above, but fire fighters were able to save the
building from serious damage, Kalman said. The residents were evacuated from
the building, he said.

Fire crews brought the fire under control by 9 a.m. No one was injured.

Also destroyed in the fire was the Green Caboose Thrift Shop, a charity thrift
store that has been housed in the back of the building since 1962. Proceeds
from the store, operated by the ladies auxiliary of the Hackensack University
Medical Center, benefit the hospital. 

Train service on the Pascack Valley line, which runs from Spring Valley to
Hoboken, was suspended between the North Hackensack and Essex Street stations
for most of the day and resumed shortly after 6 p.m., said NJ Transit
spokeswoman Penny Bassett Hackett. 

The Anderson Street station, built in 1869 as one of the stations on the Erie
Railroad, is listed on both the state and national registers of historic
places. It was the second-oldest in the state system, Bassett Hackett said.

Peggy Liosi, president of the ladies auxiliary that runs the Green Caboose,
was at the site just after 6 a.m. and found all the store's merchandise
destroyed. "When people came, they were crying," she said.

Liosi said she has heard from volunteers who are ready to help rebuild the
shop in a new location. But it will be difficult for the store to find a place
that is as perfect a fit as the Anderson Street train station was. NJ Transit
donated the space for the non-profit and the old, historic atmosphere made
shopping there feel more like browsing a charming boutique than going to a
thrift store, the store's manager, Marie Potosnak said.

"The community will feel this tremendously," Potosnak said.

Liosi said she would like to keep the service in Hackensack but she needs a
generous benefactor willing to donate space for the shop the way NJ Transit
did. To pay rent would "defeat our purpose," she said.

Locals mourned the loss of the station, easily recognizable as a piece of
history.

"It really is tragic," said local historian Albert Dib, who works for the city
and also runs the community website hackensacknow.com. "It's really a huge
loss, culturally and historically."

Dib, who lives a few blocks away from the station, said something good could
come of the incident if it helped draw attention to preserving local sites. 

"This is one of those situations that is going to get people thinking about
historic preservation," Dib said.

Mayor Michael Melfi said the loss was unfortunate at a time when the city is
looking for ways to preserve historic sites. Even if NJ Transit replaces the
station, "It obviously won't be historic anymore," Melfi said.


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