By dick shearer, lansdale historical society
What Lansdale Produced, The Rails Carried Far and Wide
More than a century ago, when railroads ruled the transportation world, towns and cities alike were judged by their train stations. Communities with large, ornate passenger depots surrounded by colorful gardens made a tremendously positive impression on first-time visitors.
Lansdale landed in that category in 1903 when a brand-new passenger station was put into service here. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad boasted the station was its grandest between Philadelphia and Bethlehem.
It generated a sense of community pride among the townspeople. No longer would Lansdale have to play second-fiddle to nearby Colonial-era boroughs such as Norristown and Doylestown that predated it in age and influence. Lansdale found its own niche; the railroad was its baby.
The new passenger depot was without question the centerpiece of downtown Lansdale; it garnered all the accolades. But an equally important construction project was taking place a block down the tracks that was every bit as important in the town’s growth and development.
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An Epicenter for Shipping
Up until 1902 passengers and freight jockeyed for space in the old wooden station built in 1868 when Lansdale was only a village. By the turn of the 20th century, the aging depot was too small to adequately handle even one of these tasks. Plans were drawn up, and in 1902 construction began on two depots, one for passengers and the other for freight.
The P&R deemed it necessary to build a separate freight station large enough to process the heavy volume of goods being manufactured by Lansdale’s industries. Companies including the Heebner and Sons Agricultural Works, the Abram Cox Stove Works, Centennial (Flour) Mills, the Krupp Foundry and others were shipping products regionally and nationwide. Local farmers were also depending on the rails to get their produce to market.
Lansdale was the epicenter for transporting these goods because they could be shipped in four directions, eliminating expensive and time-consuming transfers.
The location of the new freight station was all-important. It had to be placed within the short block-and-a-half stretch that the Doylestown and Stony Creek branches share with the Philly-to-Bethlehem main line. That is why it was built just east of Broad Street rather than adjacent to the passenger depot.
Local Stonemasons
The stone work for the freight station was contracted to the Boyles family of Lansdale, the best-known stone masons in these parts. Today the basic building looks very much like it did when goods were hauled by horse and wagon to the station for shipment. Eight loading bays on each side of the station expedited the work flow.
The interior features a large 130-by-35-foot open space that at one time included a 30-by-35-foot two-story area for offices and communications equipment. The outdoor deck that extended from the depot to Broad Street was sheltered by a roof and contained a crane for heavy lifting. The roof was replaced after being destroyed by fire in the 1970s, and the deck was in a state of disrepair until removed by the Lansdale Parking Authority as part of the redevelopment of the lot.
Few of today’s Lansdale residents are old enough to remember the freight station in its heyday. Beginning in the 1930s, improved highways and larger, stronger trucks sapped business from the railroads. World War II provided a brief reprieve but the post-war economic boom and the interstate highway network cut deeply into use of trains by passengers and freight shippers.
Just as the Lansdale freight station opened without fanfare late in 1902, it closed with little notice in the 1970s. Times changed. What had once been one of Lansdale’s most important buildings became excess baggage for the railroad. And the freight station stood silent and empty, waiting for its next chapter to begin.
