Rouses Point, NY (RSP)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2012

$53,208

Station Ridership

FY 2012

1,353

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

The Amtrak stop in Rouses Point consists of a platform next to the former Delaware and Hudson Company (D&H, succeeded by Canadian Pacific Railway) station. Built in 1889, the Romanesque brick and stone station with a slate roof rests on the site of the former Delaware Hotel, which was lost to a fire in 1882.

In 1889, D&H also moved its freight and yard offices to another building which had been the second Delaware Hotel (built in 1883). The nearby and D&H roundhouse for maintaining steam locomotives is still standing today and with its turntable, now privately owned.

D&H conveyed ownership of the station to the village of Rouses Point for $5000 in 2002. Although it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, the station sat unoccupied and deteriorating while the Rouses Point Historical Society worked on finding funds to repair and restore it. It is planned for it to house both a community museum as well as a passenger waiting room. Since its purchase, the station has received a donation from an estate, a $10,000 grant from Sen. Betty Little, as well as various monies from Historical Society fundraisers. However, they had not been able to raise the cost of the roof repair, the starting point for restorations, which was estimated at $100,000 to $150,000.

At the beginning of 2009, the D&H station was awarded $832,500 in federal stimulus funding. This, in addition to the $95,000 secured by Rep. John McHugh in February, 2009, will be applied to the restoration of the building. Along with the roof, two chimneys and bathrooms need to be rebuilt. Rotting woodwork, old flashing on the roof, brickwork, flooring, broken windows, and insulation need to be replaced. Hazardous materials must also be remediated, and an outside drainage problem needs to be addressed. The entire restoration is scheduled to be completed by December 2011. The village looks forward to the restoration not only for the renewed utility of the building for Amtrak passengers, but for reasons of civic pride. They feel it is their front door as well as the first stop in the United States after crossing the Canadian border by rail.

As part of the Mobility First Initiative of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, it is planned the station receive a new ADA-compliant, 550' concrete platform, at an estimated cost of $600,000.

Although lumberman harvesting oak and pine were there as early as 1759, Rouses Point was settled in 1783 by refugees from Canada who were granted land as a reward for service during the American Revolutionary War. The area derived its name from Jacques Rouse, one of the three who took up residence there. When the U.S. Government elected to build Fort Montgomery one mile north of the present village in 1816, the settlement achieved permanence.
Fort Montgomery was intended to command the Richelieu River at its confluence with Lake Champlain. However, after two summers of construction, when it was later determined to actually be on Canadian soil, the partially built structure was abandoned. Parts of “Fort Blunder,” as it came to be known, reportedly live on in the walls of some of the more prominent older buildings in Rouses Point.

It was not until 1842, with the ratification of a treaty that adjusted the border at Rouses Point, that Island Point reverted to U.S. control. On July 13, 1844, construction began upon what would become Fort Montgomery, and would continue over a 30-year period. This massive fortification was one of the nine forts in the U.S. to have a moat, or “wet ditch.” The fort was designed to mount 125 guns, with three tiers of cannon, most facing into the river. This fort, designed for a wartime occupation of 800, was never garrisoned (although it was armed), and in fact abandoned in favor of the Plattsburgh Barracks. The Island Point ruin is today privately owned.

The village was incorporated in 1877, and when the D&H built passenger and freight facilities there as well as a yard, the town grew because of its placement at the border and on a major north-south shipping line. The village was an important part on the Underground Railroad for escaped slaves prior to the Civil War.

During Prohibition (1923–1933), the village became a smuggler’s haven, with ships “rum-running” across the Canadian border, as well as a place where U.S. Customs destroyed a huge amount of liquor bottles. The present village commons and offices are situated on this dumping site.

Rouses Point is still a transportation crossroads for New York, Vermont, and Canada; however, while it saw five railroads coming through in 1968, today it has only the daily Adirondack. Redevelopment planning in the village took form in 2006 with a Downtown and Waterfront Revitalization Plan. Thus far the village has constructed a scenic pier and shoreline walkway, and made improvements to the boat launch and the downtown, and seeks to better use under-utilized parcels downtown.

Amtrak does not provide ticketing or help with baggage at the Rouses Point station.

Service on the Adirondack is financed primarily through funds made available by the New York State Department of Transportation. Rouses Point is served by two daily trains.