(rshsdepot) Shawmont, PA - possibly in danger of demolition?

["J. Henry Priebe Jr." <root_@_bluemoon.net>]

I had posted some info on the Shawmont depot back in 2004, but haven't
anything more about it until now. The message included at the bottomk of this
email was posted to our forum this morning. It is the first I have heard of
the 1834 PG&N Shawmont depot being in danger. Googling '"Shawmont Station"
SEPTA demolish' led me to this "Delaware Valley Sustainability" email list
thread about it:

http://mail.actionpa.org/pipermail/dvs_actionpa.org/2008-February/thread.html#1132
(careful about the line wrapping if you copy and paste)

>>>>
On Mon Feb 4 15:23:01 EST jgshabazz at aol.com wrote:
"It's rumored that SEPTA plans on evacuating and tearing down Shawmont Station
along with the Pumphouse near to it. There is only one older train station in
the US, in Ellicott City, Maryland. It dates to 1833 and has been restored to
its "Civil War" appearance, but has no rails beside it. Shawmont Station is
completely original, dates to 1834, and still has its original Philadelphia,
Germantown and Norristown railbed with trains passing by, making it the oldest
original train station in the US (originally Nixon Street Station prior to the
naming of Shawmont). I know about this because my Father inspected these
buildings for a living and knew the ages of various Railroad buildings. 

Please pass this on to every person you know who could possibly intervene,
because restorable stone buildings in the Roxborough area are continually
coming down in the interest of developers. For example: A 250 year-old house
with 18-inch stone walls was just demolished on Ridge Avenue. It appears that
the walls were knocked out from the inside of top floor to make it appear as
if it was collapsing. I imagine a similar stratagy will be undertaken on the
Train Station and other historic buildings as time goes on. 

I will also send a similar email to the Reading Railroad Technical and
Historical Society"
<<<<

I have been unable to find out any more information on this. Does anyone have
contacts who can confirm or deny that this depot is in danger?

Regards,

Henry

J. Henry Priebe Jr.    Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator
www.bluemoon.net       Internet Access & Web Hosting
www.railfan.net        Railfan Network Services

- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed,  5 Mar 2008 07:49:53 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Railfan.net Forum Post:  Shawmont, PA

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shawmont, PA
Post by CSXvet 03/05/08 at 07:49:09 in "Stations"
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is all secondhand news to me, so maybe someone closer to the scene can 
fill in the details.

But I'm told that SEPTA plans to demolish the ex-Reading, nee-PG&N station at 
Shawmont, on the Norristown line. The station, according to a group being 
formed to try to save it, was built by the PG&N in 1834 and, the group says, 
is the second oldest surviving station in the U.S.  (B&O's 1831 Ellicott 
City station is the oldest.)  Further, Shawmont could be the oldest passenger 
station, since Ellicott City was originally built strictly as a freight 
station and didn't serve passengers until 1856.

Hopefully, someone local can keep watch and report.

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------							

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1688
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org