Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Freight Shed is a historic

freight station A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are lo ...

located in the

Southwest Center City Southwest Center City (SWCC), also known as Graduate Hospital, is a neighborhood in South Philadelphia bordering Center City Philadelphia. The neighborhood is bordered on the north by South Street, on the south by Washington Avenue, on the west b ...

neighborhood of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, along Broad Street. It was built by the

Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) was an American railroad that operated independently from 1836 to 1881. It was formed in 1836 by the merger of four state-chartered railroads in three Middle Atlantic states to create a ...

in 1878, and is a large 1 1/2-story brick and stone building in the Late Gothic Revival style. It measures 99 feet, 5 inches wide and 235 feet long. It has a long, sloping roof supported by a

Fink truss The Fink truss is a commonly used truss in residential homes and bridge architecture. It originated as a bridge truss although its current use in bridges is rare. History The Fink Truss Bridge was patented by Albert Fink in 1854. Albert Fink des ...

system, with glazed

monitors Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West Vir ...

. ''Note:'' This includes The site was the first stop in Philadelphia for President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

funeral train A funeral train carries a coffin or coffins (caskets) to a place of interment by train, railway. Funeral trains today are often reserved for leaders, national heroes, or government officials, as part of a state funeral, but in the past were som ...

in 1865. The shed was used for passenger trains for four years, but was dedicated solely to freight operations after January 1882. The passenger station, along Washington Avenue, was demolished by the federal government during World War II to make space to store Marine Corps munitions and vehicles awaiting transport. By the late 1960s, the shed was sold for use as a warehouse. The

head house A head house or headhouse may be an enclosed building attached to an open-sided shed, or the aboveground part of a subway station. Markets In the 18th and early 19th centuries, head houses were often civic buildings such as town halls or courth ...

and eight eastern bays were demolished a few years later. In 2011, the shed was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. In 2016,

developer Developer may refer to: Computers * Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications * Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games * Web d ...

Alterra Property Group began work on a $100 million

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

that would restore and make use of the train site in what would be called Lincoln Square. The shed itself was rehabilitated and an eastern entrance added to create a space for a Sprouts supermarket. Designed by Philadelphia architectural firm Kelly Maiello, the project received several awards for preservation and adaptive reuse.

References

External links

* Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia Gothic Revival architecture in Pennsylvania Transport infrastructure completed in 1876 Southwest Center City, Philadelphia Freight Shed {{Pennsylvania-railstation-stub