Connecting People With Communities

Connecting People With Communities. The Elsmere Train Station. , The Elsmere Train Station , The hamlet of Elsmere represents the influence which railroads had on the growth of suburban communities. In 1863, when the first A&S Railroad train left Adams Station for Albany, the area now known as Elsmere was mostly farmland. Families began to build houses, and only three decades later the D&H Railroad recognized the area as a "rapidly growing suburban village.”, The Elsmere Train Station , Residents of this growing suburb successfully petitioned the D&H for their own railroad station. The station was built adjacent to Elsmere Avenue in 1899, only a 20 minute walk east of Adams Station., How Elsmere Got Its Name , According to the D&H, the station was named Elsmere from the popular novel "Robert Elsmere,” which was published in 1888. The name "Elsmere” was suggested for the railroad station by J. White Strong, an executive with the D&H who resided in Slingerlands. Eventually, the surrounding hamlet took on the name of the railroad station the same way that the hamlet of Delmar took its name from its station., (lower left photo:) View looking east at the Elsmere Train Station before the railroad bridge was constructed. The building on the left still stands today on the corner of Booth Road and Elsworth Avenue. , (Lower right photo:) View looking north from Elsmere Avenue crossing towards Delaware Avenue., (map caption:) A map of Delmar in 1893. The Elsmere Train Station does not appear on this map as it was built later in 1899.