Broad Street Station (Philadelphia) - Demise

Demise

In the 1920s and '30s the Pennsylvania Railroad built two new stations: 30th Street Station, which is now the main intercity hub for Philadelphia rail travel, and Suburban Station, a stub line from 30th Street Station to a tunnel ending northwest of City Hall, just north of Broad Street Station. (In the 1980s this line was extended east as part of the Center City Commuter Connection tunnel.) 30th Street Station was a through railway station that did not require intercity trains to turn around to exit the station (but a loop track was proposed just south of the station to allow the through east-west trains to come close to the center of the business district), while Suburban Station took over the commuter rail traffic. As a result, Broad Street Station's importance diminished dramatically. It ultimately suffered a fate similar to many of Furness's institutional buildings, as it was closed in 1952 and razed in 1953. The land once occupied by Broad Street Station and its access tracks is now the home to the commercial heart of the city, also known as Penn Center, including buildings such as the 54-story Mellon Bank Center. Today, all that remains of the building is a historic marker on 15th Street commemorating the site.

A bas-relief mural by Karl Bitter, The Spirit of Transportation, located in the northwest corner of the main waiting area at 30th Street Station, was originally located in Broad Street Station.

• A Pennsylvania state historical marker commemorates the site where Broad Street Station stood.

• Seals of the State of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the City of Philadelphia, from the PRR boardroom at the Broad Street Station. Now at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

• The Spirit of Transportation (1895) by Karl Bitter. Now installed at 30th Street Station.

• The Trains That Come, the Trains That Go (1919), etching by Joseph Pennell.