9 West Evergreen Avenue, Philadelphia PA 19118
© Jane Mork Gibson, Workshop
of the World (Oliver Evans Press,
1990).
The coming of the
Pennsylvania Railroad's Philadelphia, Germantown and
Chestnut Hill Line to Chestnut Hill in 1884 stimulated
the development of the land west of Germantown Avenue,
which had been mostly agricultural. There are three
stations in Chestnut Hill: St. Martin's (originally
called Wissahickon Heights), Highland, and Chestnut Hill
West (the terminus at Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem
Pike). The approach to Chestnut Hill required significant
engineering skill, and at the Cresheim Valley a wrought
iron viaduct carried the trains from Allen's Lane to the
Wissahickon Heights area. 1
The original
plans for the line in 1879 included extending the line to
Norristown and Phoenixville, possibly by crossing the
Wissahickon Valley at Roxborough, but this idea was
abandoned in 1882 because of the high construction cost;
the plan was reconsidered in 1892, but the estimated cost
again caused it to be rejected.
The Chestnut Hill Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad was
built largely through the efforts of Henry Howard Houston
and Henry D. Welsh, who owned much of the land along the
route in Germantown and Chestnut Hill.
2
Houston began his
association with the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1851 as
General Freight Agent, and in the succeeding years
contributed greatly to the growth of the railroad,
becoming a Director in 1881. His early years were spent
in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania where familiar sights were
the trains and the canal boats of the early Philadelphia
and Columbia Railroad and where he clerked in a local
general store. As a young man he went to western
Pennsylvania and was a clerk at the Lucinda Furnace in
Clarion County, and later became a partner and co-manager
of the Horse Creek Furnace in Venango County. This
background fitted him well for his work with the railroad
and his association with industry.
Houston is especially remembered for the manner in which
he built what amounted to a planned community in Chestnut
Hill by constructing spacious Victorian homes for sale
and for rent to persons that would make up a solid
community. These were largely upper middle-management men
who had become representative of successful businessmen.
The area has continued to attract an elite group derived
from this base. To make the community more
accessible by carriage, Houston contracted for the
construction of the McCallum Street Bridge over Cresheim
Creek in 1890 and then gave the bridge to the city.
Houston also contributed to the community by the
construction of public and private group facilities,
donating land and contributing funds. Some of these are
St. Martin's Episcopal Church, The Wissahickon Inn (once
a summer resort, now Chestnut Hill Academy), the
Philadelphia Cricket Club, and Butternut Cottage
(providing a week-long vacation retreat for working
women). Succeeding generations of the Houston Family have
continued this tradition of support and benevolence, with
the basis of the family fortune derived from the
founder's industrial pursuits with the railroad and his
investment in oil and other early industrial enterprises.
The Chestnut Hill Station was constructed in 1884,
according to the designs of W. Bleddin Powell who was the
architect for the Pennsylvania Railroad. It is a
one-and-a-half story stone building with an encircling
ground floor porch, gable roof and shed dormers.
3
Originally there
was a train shed over the tracks but this burned down
when sparks from a locomotive ignited the roof, and it
was not replaced. In 1917 the line was electrified,
and locomotives were no longer used. In addition to the
original station with its ticket booth, passenger waiting
room, and train personnel area, there is a concrete
interlocking tower where switching controls were operated
for the tracks to a large rail yard where coaches were
stored in the early days when locomotives were used, and
later the multiple unit electric cars. This
building is not in use now, and there is only a crossover
for the two tracks which is controlled from inside the
station building. Since this was the end of the line, a
locomotive turntable was situated on what is now a
parking lot, and the former storage track area is now the
site of an apartment building.
The Pennsylvania Railroad was taken over by Penn Central
in 1968, which was in turn taken over by Conrail in 1976.
The Chestnut Hill West Line (R-8) is now a part of the
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
(SEPTA) and runs through Center City in Philadelphia to
its terminus at Fox Chase. In 1984 the Chestnut Hill
National Bank leased the station building and made
alterations (architect Dagit/Saylor in association with
Luther Ginkinger, architect). All of the original
building is now utilized by the bank which opened May 9,
1985. A new ticket room and passenger waiting room was
built on the track side under the original roof of the
original passenger waiting platform, and includes a
switch storage area and employees' locker room.
1 A timber trestle was first
erected as a temporary structure. In 1918 a timber
run-around was built in preparation for construction of a
proposed concrete arched structure to replace the
viaduct; the 1921 recession caused a delay and the bridge
was never built (Telephone interview with John Tucker,
November 9, 1989). In 1988-89 traffic over the viaduct
was discontinued and commuters were transferred to buses
at Allen's Lane Station so that the wrought iron viaduct
could be replaced by the present state-of-the-art steel
and concrete viaduct.
2 Information on Houston's life
and his association with the Pennsylvania Railroad
obtained from David R. Contosta, A
Philadelphia Family: The Houstons and Woodwards of
Chestnut Hill, (1988), pp.
1-33.
3 J.M. Moak.
Update May
2007 (by
Jane Mork Gibson):
Chestnut Hill National Bank remodeled and occupied the
building in 1985, and in 1993 merged with National Penn
Bank, which retained the Chestnut Hill National Bank name
until about 2001. The bank leases the former railroad
station from SEPTA and has retained the architectural
motif of the former Waiting Room, including the fireplace
and oak paneling. In 1996 an ATM was constructed outside
the building.
This station continues to operate as the initial station
on SEPTA’s Chestnut Hill West R-8 Line. The Ticket
Station and Waiting Room, built in 1985 as an attachment
to the original building next to the railroad tracks, is
open Monday to Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., but
the station is otherwise unattended.
“Austin Tower" is a concrete building located in
the parking lot of the former railroad station. It is
owned by SEPTA and a sign on the building indicates it is
for R-8 Line Maintenance.