Pinelawn (LIRR station)

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Pinelawn

Station statistics

Address

Wellwood Avenue(Suffolk CR 3) & Long Island Avenue
Melville, NY

Lines

Main Line
(Ronkonkoma Branch)

Connections

Suffolk County Transit
Long Island Yellow Cab

Platforms

Parking

Yes; free

Other information

Opened

1895.

Rebuilt

1915, 1925, 1979,

Accessible

Owned by

MTA

Fare zone

Formerly

Melville(1895-1897)
Pinelwan (Melville)(1897-1899)

Pinelawn Station is a small railroad station along the Main Line (Ronkonkoma Branch) of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located on Long Island Avenue off Suffolk County Road 3 (Wellwood Avenue), near Melville, New York.

Pinelawn Station originally had two different station houses with their own histories. Both were created to serve the Pinelawn Cemetery, and other cemeteries in the vicinity. The first station opened as a flag stop on the northeast corner of Wellwood Avenue in 1895 as Melville station, a name it maintained until 1897. From there it would be named Pinelawn (Melville) and finally Pinelawn in 1899.

The second station was built in 1915, and moved to the southeast side of Wellwood Avenue in 1925. It was remodeled again in June, 1979, but only as a shelter. A high-level platform was added in 1986 as part of the Long Island Rail Road's electrification of the main line towards Ronkonkoma.

[edit] Pinelawn Cemetery Station

Despite the presence of the shack-sized station, a much more elaborate station was built across Wellwood Avenue on August 30, 1904. The station had a tall clock tower, a cemetery office, a chapel, and a fancy ticket office in the main lobby, however it is widely believed never to have been used by the public. Pinelawn Cemetery Station remained in service for a business located within the cemetery, until it was destroyed by a fire in April 1928. The walls of the station were still standing in 1960, and the arched entrance to this station remained intact until 1985, when the Long Island Railroad was beginning its electrification of the main line, as mentioned above.