Letter carriers leave the Elnora Post Office and return that afternoon to a new post office on Route 9 under the name Clifton Park.
March 26, 1989
''It appears the red warning light was on.''
An Easter Sunday train wreck destroys the passenger half of the Elnora Railroad Station. The freight half of the station remains standing.
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'A step back in time'
The small hamlet is still centered around Elnora's general store, which is now home to a restaurant, Crabapple Farm.
After a century in the hands of the Smith family, the general store shut down and reopened last year as a restaurant.
Just before its 2 p.m. close, the restaurant is nearly empty, with a few regulars finishing their lunch.
''The train tracks are right over there,'' said Karen Esposito, who owns the restaurant with her husband, John.
Esposito points out the window, past a overhang under which people used to pull their wagons to buy grain.
The Espositos saved not just the building, but bits and pieces of the hamlet's history. On the wall, they've framed invoices found by the boxfull in a barn behind the store. One is dated 1905 and shows the company building with a horse and buggy sitting out front.
Also hanging on the wall is a Pepsi-cola advertisement featuring a World War II-era ser-viceman.
The couple reused wood from the barn in the restaurant's bar and used dark wood paneling found under a pile of debris to line their wall.
The bar's wine rack is made from post office boxes from when the office was across the street.
''I think it's a step back in time almost,'' Esposito said of Elnora. ''Just driving down Main Street, looking at the architecture, you can almost visualize what it would be like living on Main Street 100 years ago.''
Elnora, 12065
Mary Hubbard has lived in Elnora for more than 50 years. When her husband found a job at GE, they decided to build a house in the hamlet.
''I liked it when it was small and you knew your neighbors,'' she said.
Hubbard seems disheartened by the development that has occurred around her.
''There were 10 farms in our area when we moved here,'' she said.
The farms were gradually replaced with a developments and a golf course.
Where the railroad crossing once was, a large overpass was built.
''It's hard to remember where the old road went,'' Hubbard said.
Hubbard is among those who moved with the Elnora Post Office in 1976.
It was 1966 when Hubbard went to work at Jump and Peterson's store for the post office.
When the government decided to give up their lease on the building, Hubbard helped the post office move next door.
''We had to move in a hurry,'' she said.
The post office would move five more times, she said, before it moved to its most recent location on Route 9.
At one of these locations, the cellar where Hubbard worked flooded regularly.
''We were constantly in the water sorting mail,'' she said. ''It would almost take you off your feet.''
Hubbard started working for the post office when they added a second route. When they moved to Clifton Park, they had seven.
Now, Hubbard said, she's heard they have more than 30.
''It was sad,'' she said of the move.
In addition to losing the Elnora location, the post office changed the 12065 name to Clifton Park. Hubbard said the post office sent out questionaires asking residents which name they would prefer.
''That was quite a joke, to make them think they would have a say in it,'' she said. ''It was already decided.''
