On South Franklin Street, just south of Depew Avenue, the Nyack Community Garden grows vegetables and flowers on ground that once held the Erie Railroad's freight house, turntable and roundhouse. The last train left in December 1965. Across the street is the plain brick north wall of The Parker, the frame shop and gallery at 42 South Franklin. In the next few weeks it is scheduled to get a steam engine painted bursting out of a wall of flowers.
Walk east from that corner along Depew and you reach Memorial Park. Its riverfront path was torn up and rebuilt this spring. Put the two together with the old rail bed running south into South Nyack, and the south end now has something it lacked a year ago: a single walk that follows where the railroad ran and ends at a finished waterfront.
The rail yard behind the garden fence
The railroad's footprint here is bigger than most walkers would guess. According to the garden's own history of the property, an 1876 map put the depot at Depew and Franklin and the freight house farther south, on the land the garden now uses. In the late 1880s a new passenger station opened about two blocks south, at what is now Franklin Street Park. The garden site stayed in freight use, with a turntable added in 1891 and a roundhouse built in 1904-05.
Today the garden serves residents of the Nyack School District. Members keep up the plots on land provided by the Robert Martin Company. Back in 2018 a newsletter promised a historical sign for the property. Whether it was ever installed is unconfirmed, so for now the clearest marker of the rail era may be the mural going up across the street.
The mural is called "Rails to Roots." The Village Board of Trustees approved the permit on September 17, 2026, after the Public Arts Advisory Committee reviewed it on August 12. The application names Brian Hart as the artist, with Hudson Valley Mural Arts coordinating. The wall is about 25 feet by 20 feet. The applicants explain the theme in their own words:
"Where rail once connected distant places, community bonds now flourish."
The application says painting should start in late October or early November, take one week to ten days including two weekends, and wrap up by mid-November. Those dates are a plan, and no unveiling date has been set. For anyone living nearby, that leaves a short window this fall to watch it being painted. Once it's finished, a UV-resistant or anti-graffiti clear coat is planned to protect it.
Down Depew to a riverfront built to match
From the garden corner, Depew Avenue leads east past the Nyack Center at 58 Depew to Memorial Park at 4 Depew. For years the riverfront stretch at the end of that walk was a gravel path that the New York Department of State described as difficult to navigate. That changed this year.
The Village's capital projects page says construction began March 30, 2026 and finished by June 30. A-Tech Concrete did the work to a design by Weston & Sampson landscape architects. The new path runs along the Hudson from the pedestrian bridge south to the fishing pier. It comes with accessible paving, shoreline stabilization against storm surge, picnic tables, lighting, landscaping and rain gardens. On the Village's numbers it cost about $551,000: $412,276 from the Department of State plus a $139,092 Village match. Secretary of State Walter T. Mosley and Mayor Joe Rand announced the completion on August 27, when the improvements were unveiled at a ribbon-cutting.
The new path also finishes off work the Village has been doing in pieces for decades. Earlier state grants paid for the walkway linking Memorial Park to the Village marina, the inlet pedestrian bridge, and the fishing pier, so the rebuilt stretch closes the gap between them. Nyack also received a separate $590,000 state grant in 2025 for more shoreline resiliency work.
| Piece of the walk | What it is | Status as of October 4, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Nyack Community Garden | Member plots on the former Erie freight yard | Active |
| "Rails to Roots" at The Parker | Steam-train and floral mural, about 25 by 20 feet | Approved Sept. 17; painting planned late Oct. to mid-Nov. |
| Memorial Park shoreline path | Accessible riverfront path, pedestrian bridge to fishing pier | Finished June 30; ribbon cut Aug. 27 |
| Memorial Park art pad | Installation pad set aside for future public art | Built; no artwork announced |
| Skatepark shade awnings | Two awnings over benches | Approved Aug. 27; construction unconfirmed |
South along the old rail bed
If you head south from the garden instead, you stay on the railroad's route. About two blocks down, Franklin Street Park in South Nyack is the site of the old passenger depot. A plaque marks the spot, and the tennis court sits on top of the station house foundation. From there the Raymond G. Esposito Memorial Trail follows the old rail bed. It is about a mile of crushed stone, crosses the Thruway, and reaches the Old Erie Path at South Broadway and Hawthorne Place. It was dedicated in 1986 in memory of Raymond Esposito.
The Thruway Authority's Rockland side path, a spur of the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge path, ends nearby at South Franklin Street and Clinton Avenue. Before you head out:
- The bridge path is free and open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. It can close temporarily for weather, maintenance or security.
- Walking it one way takes about 80 minutes. If you'd rather not walk back, Hudson Link buses run between the two landings and carry bike racks.
- Pets aren't allowed on the bridge path, only service animals. Dog walkers should keep to the village side.
- The bridge landings have a Rockland mural of 4,000 square feet and five sculptures. Counting the Parker wall, that's a lot of new public art within one walk.
The mural application calls the Nyack Plaza side of the garden a high-traffic gateway to the bridge trail and the Hudson Link bus stop. That puts the new mural on the street where bridge-path walkers and cyclists already pass.
A route that works, with coffee
The loop below starts and ends near the garden and picks up two older murals on the way. All the food stops listed have 2026 evidence that they are operating.
- Start at Coffee Ride Café, 282 South Broadway, if you're coming up from the south. Otherwise begin at Salonnière Coffee Bar, 79 South Broadway, which serves Italian-style coffee and Sicilian granita. Its neighbor, Salonnière Kitchen & Market at 79½, is an all-day eatery with a small Italian market. Art Café of Nyack at 65 South Broadway also serves coffee and light meals.
- Walk north to Burd Street to see "Yesteryear on the Hudson," the John T. Elliot mural on the south-facing wall at Burd and South Broadway, now home to Soul Flyte yoga. It was restored in 1998 and had faded noticeably by 2023. Glitter Thicket, a vegan café with baked goods at 88 Burd Street, is a short detour.
- Cut over to Franklin Street to see the Judy Heumann mural, painted by artist Lauren Randolph with participants from The Arc Rockland and unveiled in 2024. Then go to the garden and The Parker at Depew and South Franklin.
- Walk east on Depew to Memorial Park. Take the new path from the pedestrian bridge to the fishing pier, then retrace your steps or carry on toward the marina.
If you're planning something more elaborate, Scott & Joe, the cheese and gourmet shop at 4 South Broadway, can stock a riverside picnic.
The parts still being decided
Some of the south-end waterfront is still a work in progress. On September 17 the Village Board voted to amend the park code to prohibit motor vehicles, including e-bikes and motorized scooters, in certain areas of Memorial Park. At the same meeting it tabled a resolution on opening the park driveway to private vehicle access and parking until October 8, 2026. How the Board rules on the driveway will shape how the rebuilt path feels on a busy weekend.
The art pad is meant for future public art, and neither the Village's project description nor the state's announcement names an artwork or artist for it. Farther out, Nyack's $4.5 million NY Forward award includes $1,250,000 for a one-story casual restaurant with an outdoor dining deck and public open space linked to the marina. The Village's own page says the funded projects were still waiting on executed state contracts, so the restaurant remains a future plan. In the meantime, the November weeks when the train goes up on The Parker's wall are the next dated change on this walk.
People who live near Depew and South Franklin see these changes up close before anyone else does, and they become part of how a home in the south end is described when it's time to make a move. If you'd like to talk through how this part of Nyack is changing, or what it could mean for a future sale or purchase, Bobbie Procida is glad to walk the route with you. Schedule a Consultation.