Past pulls into Red Bank train station Preservation group responsible for restoring gatekeeper’s booth

Staff Writer

By gloria stravelli

Past pulls into Red Bank train station
Preservation group responsible for restoring gatekeeper’s booth


VERONICA YANKOWSKI Andrew North, vice president of Preservation Red Bank, and Ira Matthews III and Ira Matthews Jr. in front of the gatekeeper’s booth which was unveiled at the Red Bank train station on Saturday. The Matthewses restored the structure at the behest of Preservation Red Bank. More pictures on page 19.VERONICA YANKOWSKI Andrew North, vice president of Preservation Red Bank, and Ira Matthews III and Ira Matthews Jr. in front of the gatekeeper’s booth which was unveiled at the Red Bank train station on Saturday. The Matthewses restored the structure at the behest of Preservation Red Bank. More pictures on page 19.

With old-fashioned fanfare, Red Bank reclaimed a part of its history Saturday.

Townsfolk and local dignitaries gathered at the historic Red Bank train station on Monmouth Street to celebrate the restoration of the gatekeeper’s booth that once stood beside the railroad crossing.

"We’re all very happy to see it sitting here," said Andrew North, vice president of Preservation Red Bank, the local preservation group that recovered and restored the circa 1890s building. It is the first restoration project undertaken by the group.

The octagonal structure, a rare example of gatekeeper shelters once common at rail crossings, was set in place about 50 feet from the spot where it stood more than 100 years ago.

"It falls into Preservation Red Bank’s mission statement to help educate people about the architectural history of the town," said Marnie Goulart, president of the group.

"We think it was in use until around 1930."

The structure was installed at the train station Dec. 21, and the reaction of commuters has been positive, she said.

"People are very excited about it being there," she noted. "We gave them back a little piece of history."

Gatekeeper booths once provided shelter, warmth and minimal comforts for the railroad employees who manually operated gates and signals at rail crossings. They became obsolete with the advent of electrified rail crossings.

According to historical reports, the small octagonal booth, which measures about 6 feet in diameter and about 9 feet in height, originally was located at the Shrewsbury Avenue rail crossing, explained North, who oversaw restoration of the structure.

North’s research uncovered photographic documentation dating to around 1890 that subsequently placed the structure at the Monmouth Street crossing.

The restored gatekeeper’s booth has been placed as close as is now feasible to the crossing, at the Red Bank train station, which is listed on both the national and New Jersey historic registers.

"NJ Transit is accepting the booth back and gave us a place for it at the train station," explained Goulart, who said Preservation Red Bank will maintain the historic structure and will share oversight with the transit agency. She said the preservation group is planning to pursue historic designation for the gatekeeper’s booth.

For decades, the gatekeeper’s booth had rested in the back yard of Charles Leonard, who lived on West Front Street in the Lincroft section of Middletown, explained Joel Iverson, a trustee of Preservation Red Bank.

A caretaker on local estates, Leonard had accumulated a cache, including several small outbuildings and vintage cars, by the time of his death in 1991. With the property up for sale, Iverson and antiques dealer Guy Johnson visited the back yard in 1999 and spotted the gatekeeper’s booth (then being used for storage).

When Iverson told members about the booth, a group went to look at the structure.

"Several of us went over there and cleared the overgrowth away," Goulart recounted. "It was pretty fragile."

"We decided it was something we would like to do," Iverson recalled, "and it was great that Johnson and the Leonard family realized it was worth restoring."

With the help of a heavy equipment operator, the structure was eased onto a trailer and carted the few miles along West Front Street to Blaisdell Lumber where the booth was stored temporarily.

NJ Transit was notified that the gatekeeper’s booth had been recovered, and the agency gave its support to the restoration project.

With North moving the project forward, Preservation Red Bank was successful in securing a $3,100 matching grant from the Monmouth County Historical Association to fund the restoration.

Ira Matthews Jr., a Farmingdale craftsman who specializes in restoration work, carried out the restoration project, which took about 18 months. According to Goulart, total cost of the restoration amounted to $4,700. In addition to the grant, member donations funded the project.

"About 50 percent of the structure is original," Matthews said. "Just the framing was intact."

Matthews replaced the structure’s metal roof and peeled away three layers of siding. Working from salvaged pieces and vintage photos, he and his son, Ira III, made new sashes and new cornice work and used the imprint of the original board and batten to re-create the exterior siding.

"It’s the smallest building we’ve worked on and certainly one of the most interesting," he added.

After work was completed, members of Preservation Red Bank painted the booth two shades of green, the original colors identified during the restoration process.

Plans are to re-create the interior of the booth, and Preservation Red Bank is seeking donations of authentic period fittings, including a stove and a gatekeeper’s uniform.

Randall Gabrielan, executive director of the Monmouth County Historical Commission, said the commission was pleased to help fund a project carried forward by the foresight of a local group.

"This type of project is especially great," he noted, "because it was undertaken by a small grass-roots organization whose members have the vision, dedication and willingness to do the hard work that made a project possible that others may not have thought doable."

As a barbershop quartet sang and warm cider and homemade cookies were served in the train station building on Saturday, North summed up the feelings of those who worked to save the vintage structure:

"It’s nice to see it there. We all talk and dream about these things and, amazingly, it did happen."