The Jenkintown-Wyncote Train Station at 2 Greenwood Avenue is home to several iconic buildings designed by renowned architect Horace Trumbauer, multiple transient restaurants, a National Register of Historic Places designation, and forthcoming ADA-compliant platforms and a Pedestrian Tower.
Built in 1872, Jenkintown Station was originally the home of the North Pennsylvania Railroad until it was taken over by the Reading Rail Company in 1932. The outgoing and incoming benches still bear the carved Reading Railroad symbol.
According to local historian Mike Leibrandt, part of the original complex included facilities related to coal shipping businesses. The SEPTA office building was formerly utilized as a scale building by Nicholson’s Lehigh Coal Company.
Jenkintown Station pre-Trumbauer
To the southwest of Greenwood Avenue is a large parking lot formerly occupied by Nicholson’s and the Reading Company freight facility known as “team tracks.” This land was used by the company to allow a team of horses to drive up alongside a railroad car to receive a consignment directly from the train.
From the July 26, 1931 edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer:
The 1932-built structure remains to this day and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. The rare stone station, built in the Queen Anne-style, is “one of the last traditional passenger stations constructed in the region before World War II.” An excerpt:
The 1932 Jenkintown Wyncote Train Station is a complex of buildings and structures at a junction point for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) local passenger rail service. It is situated in the valley of Tookany Creek and is adjacent to Ralph Morgan Park in a suburban setting north of Philadelphia. Two traditional railroad suburbs are located to the east and west of the complex. One, the Wyncote neighborhood of Cheltenham Township, is to the west of the creek and to the east of the station is the other, the Borough of Jenkintown. The station complex consists of four contributing buildings and one contributing structure, and includes the main rectangular stone Tudor Revival style depot located on the west (inbound) side with long, prominent steel and wood umbrella sheds over the platform. The north
end of the platform is terminated by a formidable stone, brick, and wood interlocking tower (the contributing structure). The east side (outbound) platform features a stone waiting room designed in the Tudor style, the former baggage/express rooms and metal and wood umbrella sheds. Part of the original complex included facilities related to coal shipping businesses. The remaining contributing building is a former office and scale house of Nicholson’s Lehigh Coal Company, now used by SEPTA for offices. The complex is in reasonably good repair with sensitive alterations made to the main depot during a partial conversion to a restaurant, coffee shop and bar. The entire ensemble is a gracious “front door” to the two communities it serves. The station is also a contributing resource within the National Register listed Wyncote Historic District. (That inventory identifies five contributing resources—the station, waiting room, baggage room, office building [former Coal Company building], and tower—and so the buildings and structure that are nominated here are not counted again above in Section 5. See pages 1 and 2 of the
Wyncote Historic District Inventory.) Uncounted landscape features that complement the property’s integrity include remaining stone walls, lighting, track alignment, and similar elements that date from the period of significance and help convey the complex’s integrity, function, and significance.
More recently, the station has been the home of several restaurants, including Greenwood Grill, Stazi Milano (closed in 2001), Jonathan’s American Grille (closed in 2007), Mio Pomodoro (2008-2010).
In 2016, SEPTA completed an exterior restoration of the building which installed a new roof and repaired the masonry. In 2017, it was included in Curbed Philadelphia’s article “9 beautiful and historic train stations along SEPTA Regional Rail“.
SEPTA is planning to make the station wheelchair accessible, but construction has not been implemented to date. From the Cheltenham Chamber of Citizens:
SEPTA’s project to bring the Jenkintown Train Station into ADA compliance remains in the design phase with construction scheduled to begin some time between 2023 to 2026. The plan calls for the installation of high level platforms and a Pedestrian Tower located in the South Lot that will serve as the new center of the station. The Pedestrian Tower will have both stairs and an elevator as well as a drop off area in front. The existing drop off area on West Avenue will also be modified. SEPTA estimates the cost of the ADA modifications at $23.52M.
Renderings courtesy of SEPTA
Because of its status as a historic site, any improvements to the site must go through the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.
The station has been impacted by numerous flood events in recent years, prompting Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, Inc. (JMT) helped SEPTA with a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy.
Before the pandemic, Jenkintown-Wyncote hosted 1,246 daily passenger boardings. It serves the West Trenton, Lansdale/Doylestown, or Warminster Regional Rail lines.
Photos courtesy of Wikipedia
For more on the station, including office hours, routes, and related information, you can click here. You can also watch this Youtube video from 2019 which shows multiple trains passing through the station’s tracks:
For all the latest news, follow us on Facebook or sign up for Glenside Local’s “Daily Buzz” newsletter here.
Feature photo courtesy of The Philadelphia Inquirer circa 1932