LwS S2, E2: There’s No Place Like Westfield, NY for the Holidays
Happy Holidays, one and all!
The latest episode of Living With Steam is now available for streaming.
After spending Christmas of 1948 with his family, John M. Prophet III drove to Westfield, NY to visit some friends on the 26th. While there, he stopped at the Westfield passenger station in order to set up the wire recorder and capture whatever train happened by. If the town name "Westfield, NY" sounds familiar to you American History aficionados, then you'd be correct in saying that Westfield has a definite page in the book of American History.
Enjoy!
This is the 1860 political poster/leaflet that Grace Bedell saw that prompted her to write the letter to Abraham Lincoln. In another example of the same type of poster, the artist's interpretation make Lincoln look even younger.
Here's a postcard view showing the Westfield, NY passenger station... formerly that of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad.
This is the statue you can visit in Lincoln-Bedell Statue Park at the corner of Routes 394 and 20 in Westfield. It just goes to prove that every town in America - no matter their size - has a page in American History.
More information about Westfield can be found at the following links:
The Westfield, NY train station has had a second chance at life. If you're looking for a unique place to have a special event or banquet, look no further.
Here is the page of "notes" John wrote for his Westfield, NY recording. Like his first Bay View Tower recordings we heard in last episode, perhaps John didn't write any detailed information because he wasn't able to make out engines that blasted past him because it was so late in the evening... and obviously very dark outside. He was probably working off the NYC timetable in order to notate the two passenger trains... but again, no engine details.
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