Spring Garden Street station

Spring Garden Street station is a former 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.

Spring Garden Street
The abandoned building at left in 2009
History
Opened	January 29, 1893
Closed	November 6, 1984[1]
Former services 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 Norristown Line Temple University toward Pottsville Warminster Line Temple University toward Warminster West Trenton Line Temple University toward Newark Penn Station Preceding station Reading Railroad Following station Reading Terminal Terminus Ninth Street Branch Columbia Avenue toward Fern Rock

History

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]

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.
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.