Lost and Found
Written by PA Heritage Staff in the Lost and Found category and the Spring 1996 issue Topics in this article: architecture and architects, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Frank Furness, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Joseph M. Wilson, National Register of Historic Places, Philadelphia, Reading Railroad, Wilson Brothers and Co.Lost
Designed in 1886 by acclaimed American architect Frank Furness (1839-1912), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company’s passenger station in Philadelphia was largely completed within two years. The terminal, photographed in 1929, was located at Twenty-Fourth and Chestnut Streets. Passenger service from this grand depot ceased in 1958. Following a fire, the building was demolished in 1963. Original drawings and plans for the impressive building are in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The renderings, signed by Furness, were prepared while he was a partner in the firm of Furness, Evans and Company, active from 1881 to about 1895.
Found
Noted for its plans of architecturally significant buildings erected by railroad companies during the late nineteenth century, Wilson Brothers and Company of Philadelphia was responsible for the design of the Reading Railroad Company’s station at Lebanon. The building, erected in 1900 at a cost of about one hundred thousand dollars, is considered by architectural historians to be one of the finest works of Joseph M. Wilson, the firm’s principal architect. The station, entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, was painstakingly rehabilitated and serves as a branch of the Farmers Trust Bank. Preservation of the historic building has helped engender community pride.
