(The following story by Gretchen McKay appeared on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website on December 27.)
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Few structures shout “Americana” as loudly as the one-room schoolhouse. Yet to some, the local train station is arguably just as iconic. While they differed in size, style and location, railroad depots in the early 1900s served as both a social and commercial center for many communities. It was from their platforms that presidential candidates gave stump speeches, soldiers kissed their sweethearts before heading off to war and friends and relatives got their first impression of town when they came to visit.
As narrator Chuck Bierlein points out in the opening of “Pennsylvania Train Stations — Restored and Revitalized,” a recently released DVD produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting, train stations were a key element in any rail journey.
Designed as “portals of entry to the great iron horses that carried the mail,” they served as a front door of sorts to towns and cities across the U.S. But because their function of moving passengers and freight was so utilitarian, and people used them so often, these beautiful symbols of “welcome and success” were often completely overlooked.
Not only that, but as automobiles and planes replaced trains as the preferred mode of travel, many of the thousands of train stations that dotted the landscape either fell into disrepair or were abandoned. And many were demolished; the Railroad Station Historical Society estimates that only about half of the 40,000 or so train depots originally built in the U.S. still exist.
As this 56-minute film demonstrates, railroad stations in the commonwealth are once again emerging as community centerpieces. Contemporary interest in historic preservation, coupled with America’s nostalgia for the warmth and community feel of the whistle-stop depot has inspired people to breathe new life into these old buildings in exciting and/or unusual ways.
Architecturally, train stations have a lot going for them. Because the railroad companies were flush with money, noted Mark Bussler, production manager for Inecom Entertainment, which is distributing the DVD, their stations were made with incredible care and detail.
For instance, the cement walls in the former Pennsylvania Railroad station in California (Chapter 3), which was turned into a public library in 1958, are almost a foot thick. The old Union Station in Pittsburgh (Chapter 16) — now an apartment and condo complex known as The Pennsylvanian — features a grand concourse with arched openings, marble floors, ornately decorated walls, and a vaulted ceiling topped by a 40 foot high translucent skylight.
The video was produced and first aired on Penn State public TV in 2002. Each of the 16 train stations showcased in the film has its own particular story to tell, having been converted into everything from a family restaurant and a private home to a world-class engineering research laboratory. Yet what really sparked Mr. Bussler’s imagination were the stories of the people who saved them.
“Repurposing” an old building to a new use always requires a certain amount of imagination. Still, it’s fair to say that all eight of the Western Pennsylvania train stations featured in the video push creativity to a new level. For instance, the DiSalvo family turned the 1903 Pennsylvania Railroad station in Latrobe, Westmoreland County, into a 16,000 square-foot dining and entertaining complex known as DiSalvo’s Station.
The former Youghiogheny Station in Connellsville, Fayette County, constructed in 1850, today houses Youghiogheny Glass, one of only seven stained-glass manufacturers left in the U.S.
In Beaver, viewers learn how a 90-year-old freight station formerly owned by the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad was reborn as the Beaver Area Historical Museum. And what a resurrection: A recipient of the “Best Local History Museum” Award from the American Association of State and Local History, it hosted a campaign visit by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in 2000.
Washington County serves as the backdrop for two of the film’s stops: the aforementioned California Area Public Library on Wood Street, and the former B&O Railroad Station on South Main Street in Washington, which in 2001 underwent a $1 million renovation to become offices for the Washington County Tourist Promotion Agency.
In the video, retired librarian Wyona Coleman, who died in 2005, recounted how the library came to be. She noted — only half jokingly — that nothing has more perseverance “than a group of women with a goal.” Unhappy with the library’s then-temporary home on the second floor of the borough building, a group of volunteers persuaded the Pennsylvania Railroad to not only let them use their abandoned station house, but to do it almost for free. Railroad execs wanted $3,000 a year for rent; the ladies ended up paying $10 a month.
Or as Mrs. Coleman remembered, “We said we don’t have any money; couldn’t you do it for nothing as a public service?”
The idea for the caboose that sits on the library’s lawn and houses a children’s library program came from a news story Mrs. Coleman and her assistant read about how railroads were doing away with their cabooses. Thinking it might be nice to have one of their own, the assistant sent 18 letters to 18 different railroad companies. Six months later, the library got a call from Norfolk Southern informing them one would be delivered in just a few weeks.
The film ends with a look at the former Union Station at the corner of Liberty Avenue and Grant Street in Pittsburgh. During its heyday, this majestic 14-story station designed by Daniel Burnham & Co. of Chicago, the same creative talent behind the Frick and Oliver buildings Downtown, saw nearly 10,000 travelers a day. Today, it houses more than 250 apartments known as The Pennsylvanian.
So revered is this building, that people come every day, almost on a pilgrimage, just to see the rotunda.
Yet even the most humble train station, Mr. Bussler noted, can’t help but evoke the same reaction.
“All kids grow up with books about railroads or trains,” he said. “It’s a piece of American history that everyone is familiar with.”
“Pennsylvania Train Stations – Restored and Revitalized” ($14.95) can be ordered at any local bookstore, and at Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. For more information, visit trainstationsfilm.com.