The December 1999 edition of The Third Rail featured “The
Little Station in the Woods,” the story of the unique wooden
station house at Avenue H on the New York City Transit
Authority’s BMT Brighton Beach Line. The article concluded with
the observation: “One hopes that it
will not disappear in some future fit of modernization.”
That fear was realized barely three years later.
The local Community Board 14, which includes Fiske
Terrace, first got wind of the plans of the New York MTA (parent of the
NYCTA) to make changes to the station when nearby
property owners received notices that the transit agency intended to
acquire alleys behind their structures and adjacent to the Brighton
Beach Line right-of-way. According to an article by Jesse Serwer in the
Brooklyn Skyline newspaper:
“MTA officials arrived at Community Board 14
in March [2003] with a plan for the demolition and reconstruction of
the Avenue H station, much to the surprise and horror of residents who
see the station as
the focal point of their neighborhood.
“[TA] spokeswoman Deirdre Parker said
planners decided the structure must be replaced precisely because it is
made of wood, and therefore not up to the authority’s safety
code.
“As for the Avenue H station, Parker said
community concerns forced the MTA to reconsider, but the station house
still needed to be torn down. ‘We are going to try to keep [the
new station house] architecturally in keeping with the rest of the
community but the original structure will
