"The handsomest station on the Branch." That was how the Roslyn News described the new depot on Lincoln Avenue in 1887. As of this fall, the line is posted inside the same building, in a waiting room that was closed to riders for most of the past year and a half.
Across Warner Avenue, the ground floor of Bryant Plaza, a building that opened in 2025, is now fully leased. The 1887 station and the building finished in 2025 face each other across one street, and each supplies what the other lacks. The station has a warm room and a long memory but no ticket office and no coffee. Bryant Plaza has the coffee. For the first time in a while, the block south of Lincoln Avenue is a place where people stay a few minutes.
Eighteen Months Behind a Fence
In April 2025, Newsday reported that the Long Island Rail Road had closed the Roslyn station building for what an MTA spokeswoman called "a full interior and exterior renovation of the station." The announced work included roof repairs, new gutters and windows, changes to columns and cross beams, a renovated canopy, new platform signs and LED lighting. The MTA did not disclose a cost.
Commuters also lost 10 parking spaces just west of the station house, which were fenced off to store equipment and materials. The Town of North Hempstead runs that lot, which has 292 regular spaces, and the town board approved a license giving the 10 spaces to the LIRR. The target at the time was to reopen the building and return the spaces by summer 2026.
When the work began, Councilman Ed Scott, whose district includes Roslyn Heights, said, "It's about time. We're going to have a beautiful station here for our community."
By mid-October 2026, the waiting room was open to the public again, and it now holds something it never had before.
What Is on the Walls Now
Working with the MTA, the Roslyn Landmark Society has hung a collection of historic photographs of Roslyn's transportation history in the station waiting room. The Society announced it on October 14, 2026. Co-Vice President Mitchell Schwartz led the project, and Brooke Casamar, the Society's Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation Scholar, framed the photographs. The Society says the gallery is open to anyone passing through, "whether you're catching a train or just curious."
One story in the Society's research ties the station to a name every Roslyn Heights resident already knows. In 1940, Christopher Morley pressed the Long Island Rail Road to remove the stucco that had been applied over the station's brick facade. The writer whose name is on the park up Searingtown Road was arguing about this building more than 80 years ago.
The stucco he objected to was not original. Here is how the building got from its first version to the one you walk into today, according to the Society's profile of the Roslyn Railroad Station:
- 1864–1865. Roslyn's first station was a simple wooden building, and the first train stopped there on January 25, 1865.
- May 1887. Work began on the current station, a brick building with a hardwood interior finish and a roofed platform.
- 1922. Major changes covered the brick in stucco, changed the windows and added new lavatories.
- 1940. Christopher Morley pushed the railroad to take the stucco off.
- 1981. The worn north and south train sheds were rebuilt, using replica moldings supplied by the Landmark Society and painted in a period gray.
Newsday's 2025 report notes that the station was restored to its original 19th-century design in the 1980s. Each round of work since 1922 has moved the building closer to what the Roslyn News praised in 1887. The newest round brings it back as a waiting room with its own history inside.
The Practical Side of the Platform
A few things about the reopened station are worth knowing before your next train. The MTA's Roslyn station page lists these waiting-room hours:
- Weekdays: 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Weekends: 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The station has no ticket office. The ticket machine is in a temporary shelter shed just east of the station building, and the MTA suggests buying tickets ahead of time in the TrainTime app. On weekend afternoons the waiting room is already closed, so a Saturday trip into the city that leaves after 2 p.m. means waiting on the platform. The coffee across the street helps fill that gap.
Across Warner Avenue, Two Openings in One July
Bryant Plaza at 333 Warner Avenue sits directly across from the Roslyn station. The Long Island Times reports that JK Equities built it for about $30 million and opened it in 2025: a 100,000-square-foot building with 54 one- and two-bedroom rental apartments above 6,600 square feet of retail, plus on-site parking.
By July 2026, the Long Island Times reported that the retail space was fully leased. According to Long Island Press, two of its three tenants opened within 12 days of each other that month.
| Business | Opened | Space | What it brings to the block |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pilar Coffee Bar | July 6, 2026 | About 2,500 sq ft | Specialty lattes, cold brew, made-to-order sandwiches, salads, pastries, gelato |
| CorePower Yoga, Suite B | July 18, 2026 | 2,661 sq ft | Heated Yoga Sculpt and 45-minute CorePower Strength X classes |
| Roslyn Nail Salon & Spa | — | — | Rounds out the fully leased ground floor |
Pilar Coffee Bar is the first location the Florida-based chain has opened outside that state. The Long Island Times reports that the brand started in Deerfield Beach in December 2024, and that every Long Island store is franchised and locally owned and operated. The Roslyn Heights café belongs to Joe D'Alessandro, Michael Brown and Justin Johnson, longtime friends who hold the development rights for Pilar across New York. The specialty drinks on the menu include the Biscoff Butter Cookie Latte, Toasted Marshmallow Latte and Honey-Cinnamon Latte. The coffee uses a proprietary blend of beans grown in Brazil and Colombia. The company has said it is not building drive-thrus, because its food is made to order. Paired with the station's weekday 5 a.m. opening, that makes the walk across Warner Avenue the morning routine for this block.
CorePower Yoga chose Roslyn Heights for its first studio on Long Island. Long Island Press reported that the company, the largest yoga studio chain in the country, had planned two more Long Island studios, in Huntington Station and Uniondale. At opening, monthly memberships were $259 as of July 2026, and the studio was expected to employ about 35 people. A national brand's first studio in the region opening across from a small 1887 depot shows how much the block's place in daily life changed this year.
The Block Also Lost a Fixture
Not every change near the station was an addition. In December 2025, Long Island Press reported that Jade King, a Chinese restaurant that had served Roslyn Heights from Roslyn Road for more than 40 years, had closed. The notice on its door thanked "all our customers for your many years of support." The paper described it as a neighborhood staple known for both takeout and dine-in service. For many households that ate on the way home from the train, it was a regular stop, and the new arrivals on Warner Avenue do not replace it.
What Five Minutes at the Station Gets You Now
Picture a weekday morning on the block today. You park in the Town lot, where the 10 staging spaces were scheduled to come back once the work was done. You buy your ticket in the app or at the machine in the shed east of the station. You cross to Pilar for a cold brew or a sandwich for later, then walk back into a waiting room that opened at 5 a.m., with photographs of Roslyn's transportation history on the walls.
On a Saturday, the same block works differently. You can take a morning class at CorePower, get coffee next door, and visit the gallery before the waiting room closes at 2 p.m. Anyone can walk in, train ticket or not.
If the gallery leaves you curious, the Landmark Society's station profile goes much further into the building's architecture and the many changes to it, which is what the Society suggests. Read it on the platform while you wait for the train. The 1887 building it describes is right behind you.
Dalia Elison has spent her career where construction and real estate meet, so a careful restoration like the one on Lincoln Avenue is the kind of work she follows closely. If you own a historic home near the station, or anywhere in Roslyn Heights, and want to talk about what its age and condition mean for its value, Dalia Elison welcomes the conversation. Schedule a Confidential Consultation.
