Brick Church station


Brick Church is a New Jersey Transit station in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, United States, along the Morris and Essex Line. Service is available from this station east to Hoboken Terminal, New York Penn Station and west to Dover and Hackettstown.
There are two transit lines that serve this station -- the Morris & Essex Gladstone and Morris & Essex Morristown. Each weekday, 103 trains pass through the station, including 19 trains during peak hours. During FY2012, the average weekday boardings were about 1,610. This stop was ranked #24 out of 148 commuter rail stations. At this location there are available commuter parking and bike racks for passenger use.
The brick church itself, originally the , can be seen north of the station. The church building dates from 1878. The Brick Church station was probably established not long after judging by the architectural style of the original station building. The present station building was opened in December 1922 when the track grade was raised above street level.
Brick Church was the station stop for "the Oranges" made by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's through trains to Buffalo and the west. Its priority continues to this day under NJ Transit, Brick Church having more train service than either Orange or East Orange.
The head house has been on the state and federal registers of historic places since 1984, listed as part of the Operating Passenger Railroad Stations Thematic Resource.

History

The line that currently runs through East Orange began in 1835 with the charter of the Morris and Essex Railroad, being approved by the New Jersey State Legislature on Jan. 29. Service through the city of East Orange began on November 19, 1836 from Newark to The Oranges. With the construction of the railroad, Matthias Ogden Halstead, a local property developer took advantage of the one train a day that went to Newark. The railroad dropped Halstead off at his house and picked him up at his house rather making a trip to a station. Halstead offered at no cost to build a proper station at the site of the Brick Church station, and did so for the railroad.

Station layout

The station has two low-level platforms serving all three tracks.