Dunton (LIRR station)

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Dunton was a ground-level station on the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line, Montauk Branch, and Atlantic Branch in Dunton, Queens, New York City, United States. It was closed in 1939 when the Atlantic Branch was placed in a tunnel east of East New York.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] History

Dunton station on an 1891 map, halfway between 134th Street and Van Wyck Avenue

The South Side Railroad of Long Island, which crossed the LIRR's Atlantic Branch at 130th Street, opened Van Wyck Avenue station on the south side of its line in June 1869, almost a year after the line opened. A depot was added in July 1870, and in May 1871 the name was changed to Berlin. The LIRR leased the South Side on May 3, 1876, and effective Sunday, June 25, 1876, the Berlin station was closed, with all South Side passenger trains from the west (Lower Montauk Branch) switching to the Atlantic Branch where they crossed.^[1][2] The depot was moved west to the Lefferts Boulevard crossing on the Atlantic Branch in 1878 and named Morris Grove.^{[citation needed]}

Frederick W. Dunton, developer of Dunton, donated a station building to the LIRR.^[3] Local Atlantic Avenue rapid transit trains began to stop there, at the same place as the old Berlin station, by mid-1890.^[4] In April or May 1897, the depot was moved to the north side of the Atlantic and Montauk tracks, and a stop was established on the Main Line.^[5][6] With the sinking of the Atlantic Branch into a tunnel, the station closed on November 1, 1939.^[7]

[edit] References