A Neat Place To Live For A Railroad Buff

I recently came across a photograph from 1927 showing that there was a huge railroad roundhouse directly across the street from our house at one time. While I have been unable so far to pinpoint the year that this structure was built, other photos and information leads me to believe that it was probably built sometime in the 1880s, when the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad tracks ran at street level along Pennsylvania Avenue. In the mid-1890s the railroad tracks were lowered into a tunnel and cut that runs under Pennsylvania Avenue. While remaining street level tracks might have preserved access to the roundhouse, by the time this photo was taken in 1927 the roundhouse was probably idle and abandoned. Photographs from 1931 show that the roundhouse was demolished.