Pennsylvania Convention Center - Reading Terminal Headhouse

Reading Terminal Headhouse

The headhouse was a passenger station and the company headquarters for the Reading Railroad. The single-span arched train shed roof structure is touted as the world's oldest surviving. The headhouse was designed in 1891 by New York architect Francis H. Kimball, and the trainshed by the Philadelphia architecture/engineering firm of Wilson Brothers & Company. The terminal opened in 1893 and served to enhance the railroad company's power and prominence, and contributed to the city's importance. The train tracks were raised on a viaduct and entered the great arched shed about 20 feet (6.1 m) above street level. Reading Terminal Market, which had prior rights to the railroad's right-of-way for the property use, was built below the trainshed. When Reading Company ceased to exist as a railroad owner and operator, it sold the headhouse and train shed to SEPTA, the regional rail service. SEPTA operated its regional trains out of the shed until 1985, when they developed an underground station that bypassed the terminal, and the facility fell into disuse.

City and state officials pondered on a means to reuse the facility, and formed a convention center authority. Public reaction to redevelopment prompted the new authority to preserve the market and the train shed in its design of the new convention center. It currently oversees the operation and maintenance of the convention center.