The station was turned over to the Erie Railroad in 1896, serving as a partial headquarters before being moved to Hillsdale and New Jersey Transit in 1983.The original alignment of the Essex Street station dates back to the chartering of the Hackensack and New York Railroad in 1856 by David P. Patterson and other investors.Construction on the new 21-mile (34 km) long line began in 1859, with trains heading from New York City to the Passaic Street station in Hackensack.Trains terminated at Hillsdale with fare of only $0.75 (1870 USD), but just one year later, the service was extended northward to the community of Haverstraw, New York, and in 1896, the rail line was leased by the private company to the Erie Railroad.The old building, which was designed in a more medieval style for the Erie, had a low concrete platform with long set of green pillars stretching to Essex Street.
An Erie-Lackawanna train leaving Hackensack station on September 3, 1965