Newsday.com: LIRR donates historic train station to town

Officials inspect donated LIRR Oyster Bay train station.

Officials discuss turning the 1889 Oyster Bay station over to the town to create a railroad museum. NEWSDAY photo by Karen Wiles Stabile.

As the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum, the depot -- owned by the LIRR since it was built -- will be restored to the way it looked in 1902 when it was renovated when local resident Theodore Roosevelt was president. The Town of Oyster Bay now owns the building and immediate surroundings, but it will be managed by the restoration committee of the Oyster Bay Historical Society.

David Morrison of Plainview, the committee chairman, said white paint was stripped from the exterior bricks, wood trim was restored and painted the original Essex green, and copper leaders and gutters installed. Inside, they removed the partitions and second floor that were added in later years.

"We want to restore it to the beautiful cathedral ceiling appearance it once had," Morrison said. The museum will encompass the depot, the turntable that reversed steam locomotives and Locomotive No. 35, the LIRR steam engine that is slowly being restored by the same volunteers who have been working on the station.