Wantagh Railroad Complex

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. 15 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1897.

From the record

“Wantagh Railroad Complex, is a collection of old buildings in Wantagh, New York. It consists of the 1885-built Wantagh Railroad Station before it was moved from its original location in 1966, when the Babylon Branch was being elevated throughout the mid-20th century.”
Wikipedia article Wantagh Railroad Complex, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 156 National Register listings published here for Nassau County · listed in 1983 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building, 1 structure, 1 object as contributing to the listing.
Address. 1700 Wantagh Ave., Wantagh, 11793
When was it listed? June 1983
Category. building
Town. Hempstead town
National Register reference number. 83001716 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1897 to 1994

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 97 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Wantagh Railroad Complex, surveyed 1994

Topographic sheet covering Wantagh Railroad Complex, surveyed 1897

Fires near this property

1,424 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1,424 fires within 5 miles of Wantagh Railroad Complex between 2000 and 2020, burning about 594 acres in total. 62 started naturally. 151 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	999
Arson/incendiarism	151
Smoking	111
Natural	62
Equipment and vehicle use	31
Power generation/transmission/distribution	23
Debris and open burning	17
Misuse of fire by a minor	14
Railroad operations and maintenance	13
Recreation and ceremony	3

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Nassau County

Storms near this property

21 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wantagh, the town this property stands in, in 21 storm reports between 2006 and 2025: 11 thunderstorm wind, 9 flash flood, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2011	Flash Flood	Wantagh	$30,000	The Wantagh State Pkwy. was closed in both directions at Sunrise Hwy. in Wantagh and between Bay Pkwy. and the traffic circle at Jones Beach due to flooding. The Dept. of Public Works pumped out the basements of several homes in Bellmore as a result of the heavy rain. Skywarn Spottersn reported storm total rainfall amounts of 10.54 inches in Wantagh and 9.16 inches in Bellmore. Property damage amounts are estimated.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wantagh	$25,000	Four trees reported down on houses on Spring Lane.
November 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wantagh	$13,000	Large tree reported down on house in Levittown.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wantagh	$10,000	A large tree fell onto a house in Levittown.
July 2018	Lightning	Wantagh	$6,000	A building struck by lightning on Wantagh Avenue. A small fire put out by Fire Department.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Wantagh	$3,000	Large branches reported down.
April 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Wantagh	$2,000	Office of Emergency Management reports power lines down in Wantagh along Oakland Avenue with time estimated by radar.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Wantagh	$2,000	Numerous trees were reported down around the town.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Wantagh	$2,000	Numerous trees were reported down around the town.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wantagh	$1,000	Tree down on Bernice Drive between Ernest Court and Concord Drive.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Wantagh	$1,000	A tree down across Wantagh Parkway.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Wantagh	$1,000	A tree down at Wantagh Avenue and Bunker Avenue.
July 2025	Flash Flood	North Wantagh	-	Video showing feet of water on the intersection of Chimney Lane and Loring Road. Time estimated.
September 2020	Flash Flood	Wantagh	-	Park Avenue was closed at Oakland Avenue in Wantagh due to flooding.
September 2020	Flash Flood	Wantagh	-	All lanes were closed in both directions at Exit 5 on the Wantagh State Parkway in Wantagh due to flooding.
June 2020	Flash Flood	Wantagh	-	Bellmore Avenue was closed between Marion Street and Claxton Avenue in Bellmore due to flooding.
September 2015	Flash Flood	Wantagh	-	Two and a half feet of water was on Park Avenue between Oakland Avenue and Beech Street in Wantagh with reports of flooded basements and stranded cars. Storm total rainfall ranged from 3.50 inches in Plainview to 6.05 inches in Wantagh.
July 2010	Flash Flood	North Wantagh	-	In Levittown, a car was stranded in flood waters approximately 2 feet deep on Hyacinth Road. The driver and passenger were pulled out of the passenger side window by neighbors. Additional vehicles were also stuck in standing water, which covered the tires at the intersection of Kingfisher Rd. and Blackbird Lane.
July 2008	Flash Flood	Wantagh	-	Five inches of standing water accumulated on Old Mill Road at the railroad underpass in Wantagh. NWS mesonets reported storm total rainfall amounts of 3.03 inches in Bellmore, 1.77 inches in Massapequa Park, 1.75 inches in North Bellmore, and 1.57 inches in Merrick.
August 2006	Flash Flood	Wantagh	-	no account filed
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Wantagh	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Nassau County

Maps showing this location

15 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1897 USGS Hempstead quadrangle1:62500
1898 USGS Hempstead quadrangle1:62500
1899 USGS Hempstead quadrangle1:62500
1903 USGS Hempstead quadrangle1:62500 - 9 printings
1947 USGS Freeport quadrangle1:24000
1949 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1955 USGS Freeport quadrangle1:24000
1957 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1960 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1969 USGS Freeport quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1969 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1984 USGS Long Island West quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1994 USGS Freeport quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Samuel and Elbert Jackson House	0.3 miles	2006
John II Jackson House	0.5 miles	2022
Jerusalem District No. 5 Schoolhouse	1.5 miles	1996
Building at 390 Ocean Avenue	2.1 miles	2017
Grace Church Complex	2.8 miles	1983
Jones Beach State Park, Causeway and Parkway System	3.7 miles	2005

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 83001716 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Nassau County	All 156 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.