Century-old stone eagle at Hicksville LIRR to be restored

A 100-year-old, 5,700-pound stone eagle that has stood at the Hicksville LIRR station the past 45 years is set for a $5,000 face-lift, County Executive Edward Mangano and local groups said Monday at the station.

"This eagle is truly a part of New York and Hicksville history," Mangano said in front of it at the station's north entrance. "I'm glad that we are able to preserve this wonderful piece of artwork so that it can be enjoyed by generations to come."

The county will give $2,500 from its hotel and motel tax income fund, which is allowed to support artwork. The remaining cost for a sculptor to restore mostly the marble bird's beak will come from fundraising by the Hicksville Historical Society.

The eagle was one of 22 that originally graced the old Penn Station, most of which was torn down around 1964 to put up Madison Square Garden.

Hicksville High School Latin teacher Samuel Goldberg was somehow able to get the big bird before it was destroyed or someone else claimed it. He brought it to Hicksville.

Since 1965, the bird has sat at the station, the railroads's busiest on Long Island. The Hicksville High School Latin Club wrote the inscription below the eagle, which reads: "A Roman eagle once urban is now in Hicksville quite suburban."

Joel Berse, president of the Northwest Civic Association, a major supporter of the restoration, called it "fitting" that the eagle had come to Hicksville. That community's founder, Valentine Hicks, was also the second president of the LIRR.

Historical society vice president Richard Althaus said the group hoped to be able to get enough money to set aside some for continual maintenance of the eagle site. "This is a good and important symbol for the community," he said.

Railroad historian David Morrison of Plainview, a former branch line manager with the LIRR and a member of the Long Island Sunrise Trail Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, attended the news conference, representing both the chapter and the railroad.

The chapter, he noted, has given $1,200 to the project.

He said that 18 of the original 22 statues have been pinpointed, from Virginia to Maine, including one at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

"Six are in this state, three in Manhattan and three on Long Island," he said. "Two are at the new Penn Station and one at Cooper Union College. The others are at the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point."