Renovation of the former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railway's Gouldsboro Station is underway thanks to $325,000 funding procured by the Gouldsboro Area Foundation. The single-story wood framed, hip-roofed, and gabled passenger and freight station built in 1907 is currently owned by the Lackawanna County Railroad Authority. 

Bill Wyckoff, contractor for the restoration, walked through the three roomed station, pointing out it features. The entry to the station is the former Waiting Room. Its walls are paneled with tongue-in-groove pine wainscoting trimmed in chestnut with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. This room will house the Gouldsboro Area Foundation's historical collection as a museum. 

The central area housed the offices of the ticket agent and the telegrapher. Its walls and ceiling are similar to the Waiting Room plus it has carved brackets supporting an exposed beam. This area will become the offices for the GAF. 

To the rear, the former freight storage has been gutted and the renovation to the 60 x 20-foot space will include a social hall, kitchenette and restrooms. The project, financed by a Department of Transportation Enhancement Grant awarded in August 2006, is scheduled for completion this winter. 

Gouldsboro indirectly received its name from Jayson "Jay" Gould, an industrialist generally considered the most notorious of the 1800s Robber Barons, who through bribery, stock manipulation, and varieties of corrupt dealings, left behind a trail of bankruptcies on his way to becoming one of the richest men in the United States, dying in 1892 at the age of 56 with a fortune estimated at $91 million. 

Gould was born on a Stratton Falls farm near Roxbury, Delaware County, New York in 1836. A frail child, he was not suited for farm work and at the age of 14, attended Hobart Academy at Hobart - eleven miles from his home, where he was attracted to mathematics. 

As a youth, he shortened his first name to "Jay" when he began work as a surveyor and mapmaker. He wrote a book "History of Delaware County and Border Wars of New York." Although his employer failed to pay him, he sold the rights to the maps and book for $5,000. 

He was taken under the wing of a much older neighbor-46 years his senior, Zadock Pratt, a former Congressman who had established a tanning business and the town of Prattsville. 

Pratt's tanning business needed hemlock bark, the primary ingredient for tanning of hides. Gould told him that during his surveying, he had explored the vast stands of hemlock along the Lehigh River. 

In 1856, Gould came to the upper Lehigh River area and went from logger to logger purchasing the rights to thousands of acres of hemlock bark. Using Pratt's money and expertise, Gould built the largest tannery in the U.S. at a town that is now called Thornhurst. The tannery had three buildings, possibly 400 feet long by 75 feet wide. 

Around the tannery sprung up the village of Gouldsboro Borough. To get the hides to the tannery and to the market, Gould built a wooden plank road about nines miles in length to the Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railroad tracks, creating Gouldsboro Station. In 1942, the borough of Gouldsboro was abolished and the village was renamed Thornhurst. The village of Gouldsboro Station became known as Gouldsboro. 

Gould became wealthy and established a bank in Stroudsburg. In 1857, for ten cents on the dollar, he purchased his first railroad, resold it and by the age of twenty-one, he was a millionaire. In 1859, Pratt and Gould had a falling out and Gould purchased Pratt's interest for $60,000. 

Gould took on partners Charles Leupp and David Lee. There quickly was a falling out and they decided to sell their shares for $60,000, receiving $10,000 per year plus interest. 

When Gould submitted the papers lacking the inclusion of interest, Lee hired a group of armed men to take over the tannery while Gould was away. When Gould returned, he persuaded the 200 tannery workers to attack Lee's henchmen. 

Lee retreated and attacked Gould with a series of lawsuits. During the laws suits, the tannery was destroyed by fire. Gould sold his interest in the tannery. He went on to speculate in anthracite, gold, stocks and railroads using methods such as bribery, bankruptcy and insider trading to manipulate the markets, gaining the name "Robber Baron." 

Two historical markers in Thornhurst read: "Jay Gould: The first business venture of the noted speculator and railroad manipulator was in this village, then called Gouldsboro. Here, 1856-61, he owned a large tannery with Zadock Pratt. The tannery profits became the basis of his fortune." 

Gouldsboro is also famous as the major supplier of ice for refrigerated rail cars and homes in New York City from the late 1800s to the early 1950s. 

Gouldsboro is near the peak of the Lehigh River watershed. It has abundant water that was captured in a series of man-made lakes. Today around these lakes are gated communities, largely for New York City commuters.