Historic Designation For Lansdale Train Station

LANSDALE, PA — A local site in this central Montgomery County community has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Officials with the Lansdale Borough Historical Society have announced that the Lansdale SEPTA passenger train station was recently given the special honor by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The announcement was officially made this past weekend during a celebration of the borough's 150th birthday.

"We are proud of this building and what it symbolizes for Lansdale Borough," the historical society wrote in a community notice.

The train station was built back in 1902 by the Philadelphia & Reading Railway, and the building continues to hold the same "beauty and charm thanks to SEPTA and their complete restoration, preserving its original elegant look while continuing to maintain it," the society stated.

The group says that it sponsored the property for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places by applying to the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Board, which in turn nominated the station to the federal government, which ultimately approved the designation to the National Register of Historic Places.

The actual plaque at the train station reads:

"P&R Railway, Lansdale Passenger Station, Built 1902, Has Been Placed On The National Register of Historic Places, By The United States Department Of The Interior."

A story in Philly Voice says that the train station is the 159th property in Montgomery County to be added to the historic register, and the third in Lansdale Borough.

The other two Lansdale sites on the list are the Jenkins Homestead, which was added in 1977, and the Silk Factory Lofts, added in 2004.

A post on the Facebook page for the Barth Consulting Group said that State Rep. Steve Malagari, a Montgomery County Democrat, SEPTA Chief Operating Officer Scott Sauer, Lansdale Mayor Garry Herbert and Lansdale Historic Society President Bill Henning officiated the ceremony last weekend when the honor was announced.

The group said that the Lansdale train station is the second busiest along SEPTA's entire regional rail system and it is considered to be the "gateway to the borough's downtown Dining District."

The group said the honor was the culmination of a two-year effort to get the station placed on the national register.