TIMES
WALLKILL VALLEY
Vol. 34, No 18 3 WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2016
Vikings
edge
Newburgh
Page 40
3
ONE DOLLAR
Alladdin
Jr.
Page 26
www.WallkillValleyTimes.net
Train derails in Montgomery
Little Sisters
say goodbye
Walden retreat house
changing hands
By JANE ANDERSON
Rachel Coleman
Two cars derailed in the Village of Montgomery on Monday afternoon, triggering emergency response.
By RACHEL COLEMAN
A train on its way through the
Village of Montgomery derailed
Monday afternoon, sending two cars off
the tracks and closing the rail line into
Walden until further notice.
No injuries were reported and the
train was reportedly carrying nonhazardous material, a type of plastic
resin, which the Middletown and New
Jersey Railroad planned to begin
offloading on Tuesday.
Once the cars have been emptied,
the plan is to have machinery brought
in to pick up the cars. They will be put
back together and transported down
the line to a site where they can be fully
repaired. The railroad has contracted
with RJ Corman Derailment Services, to
coordinate the cleanup and reopening of
the rail line.
An investigation into the cause of
the derailment is ongoing.
Since 1939, a stately white farmhouse
on a quiet Walden street has served
as a spiritual retreat for nuns who
worked hard in the inner cities to bring
families together. The house – and the
brick residence building next door – is
changing hands, but its spirit of service
will continue.
The Little Sisters of the Assumption
(LSA) work in East Harlem; Worcester,
Mass.; and Dorchester, Mass., providing
health and social services to the poorest
families. According to LSA literature, the
order began in the United States in 1891
with the arrival of six Little Sisters from
Paris. With the help of several prominent
families in New York, they settled on the
Lower East Side and got right to work.
Donations from “Lady Servants,” two
lay women who supported the sisters,
allowed the purchase of part of a farm in
Walden.
The 6.9-acre property on Gladstone
Avenue, named Our Lady Queen of Peace,
offered a respite in the country. Originally
it was open only during the summer,
according to Sr. Jean McCormack, U.S.
territory treasurer of LSA.
“The sisters would take the Hudson
River Day Line, transfer to a bus and
arrive at the bottom of the hill [on Route
208], carrying everything they would
need for their retreat,” McCormack said.
Despite the steep ascent, Our Lady
Queen of Peace was a haven for just that:
peace and quiet. Fifteen bedrooms in the
6,000-square-foot, circa-1800s farmhouse
Continued on page 2
SERVING CRAWFORD, GARDINER, MAYBROOK, MONTGOMERY, PINE BUSH, SHAWANGUNK, WALDEN AND WALLKILL