A facelift for Frank Furness’ Wayne Junction

The 110 year-old Wayne Junction Station is a candidate for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places and is a centerpiece of the Germantown/Nicetown community. Back in April 2011, the Federal Transit Administration presented a $3.9 million grant to SEPTA to go toward an expected $30 million renovation of Wayne Junction, which is located at 4494 Germantown Ave., near Windrim Avenue. With the highly anticipated rebuild slated to begin this fall, I wanted to find out a little about where the station has been:

The Wayne Junction Station was built in 1881 by the Reading Rail Company and was later rebuilt in 1901 under the eye of prominent Philadelphia architect, Frank Furness.
It served an extensive commuter network, drawing from North Philadelphia, Nicetown, Tioga, Logan and Germantown.
The station was also once a stop for the Reading Co.’s Crusader train to New York City and the Baltimore & Ohio’s Royal Blue express to Washington.
Today, Wayne Junction – which has more than 190,500 riders annually – acts as a major transit hub served by five different SEPTA lines, two bus routes, and one trackless trolley line.
Rebuilding the station is a key to the Germantown/Nicetown Transit Oriented Development Plan developed in 2006 by the Planning Commission. Read this or the the 2010 Nicetown plan and learn how the station renovation might lead to historic preservation and adaptive reuse of the historic industrial buildings in the area.
The Nicetown CDC took a $14 million gamble on that renovation last year when it began a mixed use development along Germantown Avenue in the shadow of the station, hoping for increased commuter traffic through Wayne Junction but found the station renovation delayed because of the politics of SEPTA funding – in this case tied to a failed bid to toll Pa. Interstate 80.

All renovations to the station building and Germantown Head House will be coordinated with the Germantown Preserve and Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.