Lancaster Station was built in 1929 and today serves Amtrak’s Keystone service from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, among other trains, making it the third busiest train station in the State of Pennsylvania. The station is about to undergo a complete renovation to the tune of $12 million – see (
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Lancaster Station is the birthplace of the National Railway Historical Society. From a plaque inside the building – National Railway Historical Society, founded on this site in 1935. Aboard a special interurban excursion, commemorating the impending abandonment of the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway, members of the Lancaster Railway and Locomotive Historical Society and the Interstate Trolley Club of Trenton, New Jersey on August 18, 1935 agreed to merge the two organizations and form the National Railway Historical Society.
On August 21, 1935, at the Pennsylvania Railroad Station in Lancaster, the new NRHS constitution was ratified by members of the LR&LHS, which became the first chapter of the new society. The LR&LHS was dissolved that same year and the Lancaster Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society was established.
To recognize these events of the past, this plaque is placed in the Lancaster Railroad Station this 28th day of June 1995 as part of the NRHS Sixtieth Anniversary Convention hosted by the Lancaster Chapter. – Historic Plaque Commission, 1995
The following article from 1917 gives an inkling of the planning and consensus building required to build a new station (indeed any public infrastructure), even in the early twentieth century. Derived from ‘The American City’ By Arthur Hastings Grant and Harold Sinley Buttenheim; published by Buttenheim Publishing Corporation, 1917 - Item notes: v.16 1917 Jan-Jun. Original from the University of Michigan; Digitized by Google October 3, 2007. See (
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‘City Planning in Lancaster’, Lancaster, PA – Charles Mulford Robinson, of Rochester, New York, has been engaged by the City Planning Committee of the [Lancaster] Chamber of Commerce to recommend to the citizens the most desirable site for a new station that the Pennsylvania Railroad desires to build in Lancaster.
The railroad situation in this city is peculiar. Some sixty years ago the Pennsylvania Railroad built its main line through the heart of the city, which necessitated the making of a rather sharp curve. Some years later the railroad built what is known as the cut-off through the northern outskirts of Lancaster, eliminating the bad curves in the city.
The people are divided as to whether the station should be located at some point in the center of the city or be built on the main line. The Chamber of Commerce hopes that the report of Mr. Robinson will help to crystallize public opinion on the whole subject and that, as a result, Lancaster’s badly needed railroad station will be built in a few years.
The very instructive city planning exhibit of the American City Bureau, which was on display in Lancaster last June, has done much to arouse the interest of the citizens in the subject of city planning. The exhibit consisted, among other things, of views and drawings of many cities in this and foreign countries illustrating the great good that has been accomplished in them by competent city planners. The exhibit was in charge of John e. Lathrop, and his numerous discussions before the various local organizations proved to the citizens the need of a comprehensive city plan for Lancaster.
Charles Newbold
Secretary, Lancaster Chamber of Commerce
Wikipedia Entry – Lancaster Station - (
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