Railroads · Whiting
The second Whiting station fire of 1897
Multiple reports compared
A newly opened station jointly owned by three railroads burned on a Tuesday morning, only months after fire destroyed its predecessor.
The fire
Three saved reports say the building was owned jointly by the Philadelphia and Long Branch Railroad, the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and the Tuckerton Railroad. The station and freight agents rescued account books, telegraph equipment, and other office material before the structure was destroyed. Reporters attributed the fire to a defective hot-air furnace.
The building had been occupied only since September 1. It replaced a station struck by lightning and burned earlier that spring. One account, datelined Toms River on November 4, says the second fire occurred the previous day; other versions identify Tuesday morning shortly before noon. F. G. Sterling, formerly a longtime Pennsylvania Railroad freight agent at Freehold, had moved to Whiting that summer to work in the new station.
Source note
The surviving newspaper crop does not show a reliable masthead, complete issue date, or page number. Names and damaged words are identified as uncertain in the text; researchers should verify them against a full newspaper image before citation.