Tulpehocken (SEPTA station)

Tulpehocken
SEPTA regional rail
The station at Tulpehocken in October 2012, seen after the restoration efforts.
Location	314 West Tulpehocken Street Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
Owned by	SEPTA
Line(s)
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Connections	SEPTA City Bus: Routes 53, 65
Construction
Parking	35
Other information
Fare zone	2
History
Opened	1878
Electrified	1918
Previous names	Walnut Lane
Services
Preceding station   SEPTA   Following station Upsal toward Chestnut Hill West Chestnut Hill West Line Chelten Avenue toward Temple University   Former services   Pennsylvania Railroad Upsal toward Chestnut Hill Chestnut Hill Line Chelten Avenue toward Suburban Station
Tulpehocken Station Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Philadelphia Register of Historic Places
Location	Germantown, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, USA
Coordinates
Built	1878
Architectural style	Late Victorian
NRHP Reference #	85003564
Added to NRHP	November 26, 1985

Tulpehocken Station is a SEPTA Regional Rail station at 314 West Tulpehocken Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This station is also known as Walnut Lane Station. The station building was built in 1878 from a design by Frank Furness, according to the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings project.

The station is in zone 2 on the Chestnut Hill West Line, on former Pennsylvania Railroad tracks, and is 8.5 track miles from Suburban Station. In 2004, this station saw 176 boardings on an average weekday.

History

File:Tulpehocken station.JPG

Tulpehocken Station undergoing restoration in 2009

Although commonly attributed to architect Frank Furness, the actual architects for all of the stations on the Chestnut Hill West line (part of the Pennsylvania Railroad at the time) were William Brown and William Bleddyn Powell, who were under contract to PRR. This information comes from the Philadelphia Historical Commission in its nominations for the registry of Historic Places. (Furness designed station buildings on the Reading Railroad.) All of the Chestnut Hill West stations are now on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. The Tulpehocken Station is a contributing property in the Tulpehocken Station Historic District of the National Register of Historic Places.

The station building had either a ticket office or a business in it and a residence above it until 1978. The building was closed although the station stop continued. SEPTA provided little or no maintenance to the building and it deteriorated significantly.

In November 2007, the West Central Germantown Neighbors formed a committee, Save Tulpehocken Station, in an attempt to recover the station and return it to a viable use. Working with SEPTA, Philadelphia City Planning, and local politicians, the local residents raised funds to match a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The grant funded a project manager to assess the structural condition of the building and to identify a viable business use for it.

In the spring of 2009, SEPTA received federal economic stimulus funds which were allotted to the Chestnut Hill West line for building repairs. As a result, the Tulpehocken Station building received repairs which will encourage a business developer to make use of the space.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• SEPTA - Tulpehocken Station
• 2005 Rob Mandeville photo