Arrive Magazine - January/February, 2008

a dramatic sense of arrival, many of these architectural treasures narrowly escaped demolition when the declining fortunes of the railroad industry left them poorly maintained and nearly abandoned by the late 1960s. Some stations fell into irretrievable disrepair; others were bulldozed in the name of progress. In what the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan called “the greatest act of vandalism in the history of the city,” New York’s beloved old Penn Station was torn down to make way for Madison Square Garden in 1963. Behind many of the magnificently restored “Temples of Transportation” still in existence today lurks a story of a time when pigeons roosted in the rafters or the roof had caved in or a date with the wrecking ball was imminent.

With America’s historic train stations teetering on the brink of disaster, the country finally woke up and realized what was at stake.

“We don’t build buildings with the same character anymore, and so we qualitatively downgrade our lives when

Hoboken Terminal celebrates its 101st birthday in February

we lose them,” says Janet Greenstein Potter, author of the entertaining and well-researched Great American Railroad Stations. Potter also attributes the public’s renewed interest in these stations to the deep connection many Americans have to the railroad industry.

Whatever the motivation, the idea of station preservation took hold, historic landmark laws were passed, and in many cases communities that had left their depots in the dust now worked diligently to keep them alive. Boston’s South Station was rescued by a group of concerned citizens who secured its listing on the National Register of Historic Landmarks. New York’s Landmark Preservation Commission, which had been created as a direct result of Penn Station’s destruction in the ’60s, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to save Grand Central Terminal from a similar fate. After creating Amtrak in 1971 to preserve passenger train travel in the United States, Congress followed with the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project in 1974. This

New Side of the Track

As passenger train service began to shrink in the 1950s and ’60s, cities and towns across the country were left with the dilemma of what to do with the old train stations that were no longer being used. Over the years, communities have gotten creative, and many have found remarkably inventive new ways to put these great old buildings to use.

Founded in 1979, the Depot Theatre in Westport, N. Y., occupies the

historic 1876 building that was once the Delaware and Hudson station. A professional, nonprofit theater, the Depot occupies the station’s former freight room, where audiences are treated to the occasional rumble of an actual train as Amtrak’s service from New York to Montreal makes its daily pass through town.

Named for the acclaimed photographer of steam trains, the O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, Va., took over an abandoned 1905 Norfolk & Western passenger station in 2004. The museum houses a large collection of Link’s stunning photographs, and audio recordings made during the 1950s, when steam trains were

FROM TOP: NJ TRANSI T/MICHAEL ROSEN THAL, O. WINS TON LINK MUSEUM

about to become extinct.

Doing double duty, the Mount Airy Station in Mount Airy, Pa., continues to function as a stop for commuters on the SEPTA regional train line and also is home to the 80,000-volume used bookstore, Walk A Crooked Mile Books.

“Studies have found that creative use of a building like this increases property value in the area and increases ridership,” says Walk A Crooked Mile owner Greg Williams. In the 12 years since it opened, the store has become a hub of activity for Mount Airy, selling books and coffee and hosting everything from community yard sales to a concert series in the former

freight area. Happy that his business has breathed new life into the old station, Williams says, “We love the building and love being a center for the community.”