Editing Harriman, New York (section)

=== Railroad service in Harriman ===
{{Main|Harriman station (Erie Railroad)|l1=Harriman Station (Erie Railroad)}}

In 1838, Peter Turner had constructed a large train depot named the Orange Hotel. It was 3 stories tall, with a large dining hall and lavish rooms.<ref>{{Cite news |title=TimesMachine: Sunday June 12, 1910 - NYTimes.com |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/06/12/issue.html |access-date=2024-10-18 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> It sat along the train tracks for the New York & Erie Railroad and was a fairly popular place for people to stop. But on December 26, 1873, the hotel had caught fire in the attic. Due to a lack of fire suppression equipment in the area, it was unable to be extinguished and the building completely collapsed within half an hour.<ref>{{Cite news |title=TimesMachine: Saturday December 27, 1873 - NYTimes.com |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1873/12/27/issue.html |access-date=2024-10-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

The station was replaced with a small depot until in 1909 when [[Mary Williamson Harriman|Mary Harriman]] (widow of E. H. Harriman) donated land farther south to build a new station, since the shack was on the verge of collapse. In 1910 with the death of E. H. Harriman, the Turner Village improvement Association proposed renaming Turner to Harriman. The association voted 58 to 13 to change the name.<ref>{{Cite news |title=TimesMachine: Sunday May 29, 1910 - NYTimes.com |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/05/29/issue.html |access-date=2024-10-18 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The village was divided on this matter, with one church putting up a banner reading "LONG LIVE TURNER," with the village responding by tearing it down.<ref>{{Cite news |title=TimesMachine: Sunday June 12, 1910 - NYTimes.com |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/06/12/issue.html |access-date=2024-10-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> After this controversy had subsided, work began on the new station depot. with $6,000 donated from Harriman's widow, the station was much better designed, with a style that closely matched [[Tuxedo, New York|Tuxedo]]'s station to the south.
[[File:Harriman train station.jpg|thumb|The new [[Harriman station]] on the [[Port Jervis Line]]]]
The new station served the [[Erie Railroad]] for decades, until its bankruptcy where service was transitioned into the newly formed [[Erie Lackawanna Railway]], then into Conrail only 16 years later, and finally the [[Metro-North Railroad]]. By the 1980s the station was boarded up and train service had been transitioned onto the present day route, with a [[Harriman station|new station being constructed south of Harriman]] on Route 17.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-07-10 |title=Wayback Machine |url=http://www.erie-lackawanna.com/images/PJ_SVC_CHG_04-83.jpg |access-date=2024-10-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710195645/http://www.erie-lackawanna.com/images/PJ_SVC_CHG_04-83.jpg |archive-date=July 10, 2011 }}</ref> The station remained decaying until 2006 where the Harriman building inspectors told [[Norfolk Southern Railway]] (the current owners of the land it stood on) to either refurbish the station or tear it down, which the railroad chose the latter. Presently, the former railroad from River Road, Harriman to East Main Street, [[Middletown, New York|Middletown]] has been converted into a 19.5 mile long shared-use path named the [[Heritage Trail (New York)|Heritage Trail]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Heritage Trail {{!}} Orange County, NY |url=https://www.orangecountygov.com/1475/Heritage-Trail |access-date=2024-10-16 |website=www.orangecountygov.com}}</ref>