Tuesday, March 11, 2008

What the hell is Country Life Press?


If you have ever taken the Long Island Railroad, and have been stuck in Penn Station, you probably have had the same question. What the Hell is Country Life Press?
The loudspeaker comes on, the voice announces the station names, Mineola, Hempstead, all familiar Long Island towns, and then he says "Country life Press". There is no town by that name. It sounds like a newspaper from a long time ago, when there was actual farmland in Nassau County.
This question usually comes up when I am coming home from a drunk night in the city. you miss that two something AM train, and end up curled up on a chair for 3 hours. So even though this question has lingered in my mind for many years, I never once thought to look it up. Where is this magical place? Why is a train station named after a newspaper.
Thankfully, a quick wikipedia search yields the answer.
Country Life Press is one of five Long Island Rail Road stations in the village of Garden City, New York. It serves the Hempstead Branch and is located on Chestnut Street and St. James Street South in Garden City.

The station was originally opened in 1911 for the sole purpose of serving the Doubleday & McClure Publishing Company.[1] Country Life Press station has some former rights-of-way that led to the West Hempstead Branch and the Oyster Bay Branch. It also included the remnants of the Central Branch of the Long Island Railroad that terminates near Nassau Coliseum.


So there you have it.

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