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L&NE Lansford Depot Preserved

Exterior view of the Lehigh & New England Lansford depot on October 30, 1975. The metal “Lehigh & New England Railroad” lettering still remains today. —The Houser Collection

L&NE Lansford Depot Preserved

May 2023by James Benetzky/photos by the author

On the evening of February 22, 2023, the doors of the former Lehigh & New England Railroad Station at 1 Dock Street in Lansford, Pennsylvania, were opened to the public for the first time. The open house was held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and was hosted by the Lansford Historical Society. The event gave the public a chance to inspect the inside of the historic structure and learn about its past, as well as the plans for its restoration and future use. The society also used the event to display several original blue-prints of the exterior and interior of the Lansford Station as it appeared when it was in use by the L&NE. The society acquired the drawings from an anonymous donor. Each room on the first floor had a table with a pair of the drawings on display.

The Lansford Railroad Station station opened in 1925 as a combination freight and passenger depot. The building continued to be used as a freight station after L&NE ceased passenger service in 1937, until the L&NE ceased operations in 1961. The station was closed by the CNJ in 1962. Following the closure of the building, it was sold and used by various businesses, including the manufacturer Velvet Ribbons.

The station had most recently been occupied by Hill’s Machine Shop, owned by Ken Hill. Mr. Hill ran his business there for over sixty years until his retirement on December 31, 2022. Ken Hill has an appreciation for the history of the building. During his ownership he covered up the original windows of the building to protect them for the future. He also covered some of the original doors as well. He did the same to the windows in the freight station section. Hill built a false wall in the former ticket office to preserve the original ticket window and the dumb waiter used between the ticket office and freight office on the second floor. Ken also removed all the original light fixtures in the passenger area and stored them away in various crawl spaces throughout the structure…


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This article was posted on: April 20, 2023