The LIRR's Most Beautiful Station

In Sunday's post about Travel and Leisure's list of the top-15 most beautiful train stations I included a poll as to what readers think is the LIRR's most beautiful station.  Thank you to the 128 people who chimed in.  There were some interesting answers for both the most beautiful and least beautiful categories.

But without further adieu, the station that was voted most beautiful,  was:

Forest Hills

Forest Hills, a beautiful station along the busy mainline was voted by readers as the LIRR's most popular station.  When you see photos of Forest Hills it is easy to see why this often overlooked station is the system's most beautiful:

(See even more photos of Forest Hills on The Subway Nut)

Forest Hills only scored about 30% of the vote, however.  There were quite a variety of stations that were submitted as being the most beautiful.  Other stations that garnered a decent amount of votes include Atlantic Terminal, Jamaica, and Mineola.

On the other side of the coin, the winner of the LIRR's least beautiful station award won out by a slim margin over the second place finisher (only two votes separated the two).  But the station that came out on top (or should I say the bottom!) was:

East New York

East New York's drab appearance is only worsened by the neighborhood its in.  Unlike Forest Hill's ornate entracneway, East New York's feels like you're just feet away from stumbling onto something you're not supposed to see.  But the pictures do the talking for this one:

(Photo credit: Matt Green/I'm Just Walkin')

(See even more photos of East New York on The Subway Nut)

The unsightly East New York station ever so closely won out over New York Penn Station, the LIRR's busiest, smelliest, and drearyist stations.  Honorable mention in this category also goes to Hunterspoint Avenue, Nostrand Avenue, and Hicksville. 

The LIRR definitely does have its fair share of nice stations.  Many of the ones that have been renovated recently are quite nice (Seaford, many of the West Hempstead Branch stations, to name a few), and it seems like the LIRR is taking an active role in keeping its stations nice and pretty.  They're currently working on Massapequa now, Wantagh is slated to get fixed up next, and renovating Hicksville and the remaining Babylon Branch stations have also been kicked around.

Thanks again to everyone who voted!