[dvs] ...evacuating and tearing down Shawmont Station

[jgshabazz at aol.com]

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. 

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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. 

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



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