Spring Garden Street station

Spring Garden Street station was a train station in the Poplar neighborhood of Philadelphia. It was built by the Reading Railroad and located on the Reading Viaduct. Service to Spring Garden Street ended in 1984 with the opening of the Center City Commuter Connection, which bypassed the Reading Terminal, and the building was demolished in 2021.

This article is about the former Reading Railroad station. For other places of the same name, see Spring Garden station.
Spring Garden Street
The abandoned station in May 2021
General information
Coordinates39.961943°N 75.153057°W / 39.961943; -75.153057
Line(s)Reading Viaduct (Ninth Street Branch)
History
OpenedJanuary 29, 1893
ClosedNovember 6, 1984[1]
Former services (SEPTA)
Preceding station SEPTA Following station
Reading Terminal
Terminus
 Bethlehem Line Temple University
toward Allentown
Chestnut Hill East Line Temple University
toward Chestnut Hill East
Newtown Line Temple University
toward Newtown
Lansdale/​Doylestown Line Temple University
toward Doylestown
     Pottsville Line did not stop here
Reading Terminal
Terminus
 Warminster Line Temple University
toward Warminster
West Trenton Line Temple University
toward Newark Penn Station
Former services (Reading)
Preceding station Reading Railroad Following station
Philadelphia
Terminus
 Main Line Columbia Avenue
toward Pottsville
Bethlehem Branch Columbia Avenue
toward Bethlehem
Chestnut Hill Branch Girard Avenue
toward Chestnut Hill
New York Branch Columbia Avenue
toward Bound Brook
Norristown Branch Columbia Avenue
toward Elm Street

History
The demolished station in March 2022

Spring Garden Street was built adjacent to the old Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad depot at Ninth and Green, which had opened in 1851. Ninth and Green had been the primary Philadelphia terminal of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad since 1879 and the Reading had outgrown the facility.[2] To replace it, the Reading constructed the Reading Terminal on Market Street, roughly 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south. Reading Terminal was linked to the existing railway line by a new elevated route carried by the Reading Viaduct. Spring Garden Street was built to serve the elevated route. Both it and Reading Terminal opened on January 29, 1893, although the Spring Garden Street station building was not completed and tickets had to be purchased at Ninth and Green.[3] Ninth and Green would remain open as a freight-only building until 1909, when it was demolished to permit additional track elevation.

Spring Garden Street remained in use until 1984, when the new Center City Commuter Connection opened.[4] In March 2021, Reading International, the successor company to the Reading Company, filed paperwork to demolish the building. Arts & Crafts Holdings – a real estate development company – and nonprofit Scioli Turco sought a conservatorship over the building. Reading International handles the company's legacy properties and rights-of-ways.[5] Nevertheless, Philadelphia's Department of Licenses & Inspections issued a permit to Reading International to demolish the station.[6] Demolition began in May 2021.[7]

References
  1. Williams, Edgar (November 6, 1984). "A Fond Adieu to Reading Terminal". The Philadelphia Inquirer. pp. A1, A8. Retrieved May 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  2. "Old Ninth and Green Streets Depot, Philadelphia, to be Demolished". International Railway Journal. XVII (3): 25–26. June 1909.
  3. "Changes in Reading Train Service". Railway World. 19 (11): 246. March 18, 1893.
  4. Feldman, Vincent D. (2014). City Abandoned: Charting the Loss of Civic Institutions in Philadelphia. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books. p. 132. ISBN 978-1-58988-082-5.
  5. Briggs, Ryan (January 27, 2021). "Developer, nonprofit petition to take over abandoned Reading Viaduct station". WHYY.
  6. Briggs, Ryan (March 23, 2021). "Philly's Spring Garden railroad station to be torn down despite efforts to save it". WHYY.
  7. Saffron, Inga (May 12, 2021). "As Philadelphia advances streetscape plan for Spring Garden, historic buildings fall to neglect". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021.
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