Blairstown's NYS&W Railroad Station and Yard were located across the Paulinskill River. Dating to 1877, the station was a main line depot until passenger service was halted in 1938. The 2 1/2 story wood frame combination freight and passenger station had a raised platform around the freight portion and a track level passenger platform. In 1958 the NYS&W retired the freight station, and it eventually burned down in 1973. for its stability and solidity, until the end of his life. Although the building is now gone, its site is covered, ironically, by the drive-through lanes for the PNC bank on Mansfield and Front Streets. And a block away on Hardwick Street is another reminder of John I.'s family wealth, the mansion of his son, DeWitt Clinton Blair, which later housed for many years the Warren County Library. Later, John I. became interested in flour and cotton production, eventually operating four flouring mills at one time. One cotton mill was located along the Paulins Kill downstream from Marksboro. His business acumen unmatched, Blair once purchased, at a greatly reduced price, a large batch of cotton that had seemingly spoiled. After culling out the small amount that was ruined, he processed the rest, turning a profit of $15,000, a bonanza in his day. Other transactions brought various amounts of real estate into his hands, and his cumulative local landholdings became substantial. Mr. Blair began to follow other entrepreneurial pursuits that would ensure him a fabled legacy as railroad mogul and land developer. During the 1840s and 50s, Blair joined the Scranton brothers at Slocum Hollow, PA, (the future site of Scranton) in the Lackawanna Coal & Iron Company, one of the earliest suppli6 ers of steel rails to railroad companies. To reach the lucrative eastern markets for their coal and iron products, by the early 1850s the new company had built a rail line of its own— the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western— as far south as the Delaware Water Gap, but still needed to connect to one of the existing New Jersey railroads in order to reach their intended markets. Blair moved quickly, forming the Warren Railroad Company, of which he was the major stockholder and president, then taking charge to establish its financing, right-of-ways, and construction. By 1857, the Warren Railroad had been completed and leased to the DL&W, linking it with the Jersey Central at Hampton. As the railway came north through Washington and Oxford, then turned west along its final stretch, the tracks found their way roughly parallel and north of what is now State Route 46, across the Beaver Brook, then through the 900 foot-long Manunka Chunk Tunnels. A junction and station were erected at the tunnel's exit, and the WRR continued along the ridge (above the current highway) towards its junction with the DL&W.
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