The following 1860 article is about the location of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad depot in Jamestown, NY. This would be the first of four stations in Jamestown on what would become the Erie Railroad.
The Depot is located, and the Irishmen, spades and carts are grading the surface. Instead of the place being selected at the junction of the track and Second St. some ways up the outlet, as some had supposed, it was finally determined at the foot of Cherry, the first street west of Main. In this location, Mr. Engineer HILL acted, not only for the interest of the company, but, we believe, with a considerate regard for the future good of our village. We speak of the passenger depot – the freight house will be placed on the first site mentioned.
We speak from one consideration only – the good of the public – when we say that the location of the passenger depot has been properly made. The matters of convenience to the traveling community, facilities of business, surroundings of taste and sources of pleasure and interest to our village are subserved by this selection. Main street, the hotels and homes, are now in reach of the traveler, either in sunny weather, or in the dead of night when a wintry thaw finds him necessitated to wade through snow and slosh with a heavy valise, to his home. It will be an easy walk to meet our friends or “see the cars come in,” and will add a new available enjoyment to our list of good things about town. The accessory streets and avenues will likely be put in order, and it is hoped that the company will obtain the land from the bridge to Cherry St, for Depot streets and ornamental plants. – The avenue by Cherry street, though a good one, will not be sufficient. We hope Col. Baker will do a generous deed in regard to the placing of this plot of side hill at the company’s disposal. If he wants to do a graceful thing for his own village, one that will sprinkle his name with a fragrance and memory that a million of money never could give, let him devote this ground, after indemnification for original cost, to such a purpose for the benefit of the town.
But the principal reason for this location of the depot is, perhaps, that it prevents the creation of rival and mutually destructive points of business within the corporation. A healthy rivalry is good for any place; but distinct and opposing centres of trade, in the same town, do a mutual and fatal injury and never benefit the public as a whole – Every body knows this. The business will now be distributed through Main street and its natural connections, and all the place will grow by the impetus.
Source: Jamestown [NY] Journal. 24 August 1860.