Bethlehem Union Station is a former train station located in the South Side neighborhood of

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19, ...

. It was built in 1924 by the

Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, w ...

and the

Reading Company The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly called ...

, replacing an earlier station built in 1867. Passenger service to Philadelphia on the

SEPTA Regional Rail The SEPTA Regional Rail system is a commuter rail network owned by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and serving the Philadelphia Metropolitan area. The system has 13 branches and more than 150 active stations in Philadelphi ...

Bethlehem Line The Bethlehem Line was a SEPTA Regional Rail service on the former Reading Company Bethlehem Branch between Lansdale and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Some trains continued over the electrified Lansdale/Doylestown Line to the Reading Terminal in Philad ...

lasted until 1981. The station was renovated in 2002 and used for medical clinics beginning in 2003. It is owned by St. Luke's Hospital.

History

In 1745, the Crown Inn was established as Bethlehem's first public house to serve stagecoach travelers. It soon became an important meeting point in the city, even after the nearby ferry was replaced with a bridge in 1794. The

and

North Pennsylvania Railroad The North Pennsylvania Railroad was a railroad company which served Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Bucks County and Northampton County in Pennsylvania. It was formed in 1852 and began operation in 1855. The Philadelphia and Reading Railway, ...

both reached Bethlehem by 1855; in 1857, the Crown Inn was demolished to allow a new junction between the two railroads at the LV's South Bethlehem station. The two railroads built Bethlehem Union Depot, which opened on November 18, 1867. A two-story building with a pointed tower, it was not well liked. In 1924, it was replaced by Bethlehem Union Station, a larger modern brick building. Lehigh Valley passenger service ended on February 4, 1961, the last trains being the ''

Maple Leaf The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada. History of use in Canada By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by the French Canadians along the ...

'' and ''John Wilkes.'' The Lackawanna and Reading railroads' ''

Interstate Express The ''Interstate Express'' was a long-distance passenger train operating between Syracuse, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, jointly operated by the Reading Railroad, the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Delaware, Lackawanna and West ...

'' and the Reading's ''Scranton Flyer'' made stops at the station up to 1957 and 1949 respectively. In 1962, the two railroads attempted to auction off the station building. However, it was not sold, and the property passed to

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

when the Reading folded in 1976. Conrail continued to provide commuter service to Allentown under contract to

SEPTA The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five coun ...

, which had been subsidizing service since 1966. As SEPTA discontinued its diesel service in favor of shorter electric lines, the line was cut back to Bethlehem in 1979. In April 1981, SEPTA announced its intentions to discontinue service on the line on July 1.

PennDOT The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) oversees transportation issues in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The administrator of PennDOT is the Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation, currently Yassmin Gramian. Presently, Pe ...

attempted to operate service but a last-minute deal with the

Berks Area Regional Transportation Authority Berks Area Regional Transportation Authority (BARTA), previously Berks Area Reading Transportation Authority, is a public transportation system serving the city of Reading and its surrounding area of Berks County, Pennsylvania. The South Central T ...

to operate the trains fell through during contract negotiations. Service was cut back to Quakertown on July 1, then to Lansdale in August. Some restoration work was performed on the derelict station in the 1980s, but it was unused until Ashley Development Corporation refurbished it in 2002. St. Luke's Hospital moved clinics into Union Station in 2003, and bought the building outright in 2008. However, St. Luke's moved most of its services to a nearby building in 2011 and 2013.

References

External links

St. Luke's Union StationStation from Riverside Drive on Google Maps Street View
{{SEPTA Regional Rail stations Former SEPTA Regional Rail stations Former Reading Company stations Railway stations closed in 1981 Union stations in the United States Former Lehigh Valley Railroad stations Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Former railway stations in Pennsylvania

History

See also

References

External links