The Lansdale Freight House.
If its walls could talk, they would be speechless.
For several decades, the historic freight house at Lansdale’s South Broad and Vine street intersection has been devoid of being. But, the sounds emanating from the expansive, solid stone-walled building on a recent Thursday night were unlike anything you have ever heard.
For once, it wasn’t dead silence. For once, there wasn’t the whirr and screech of after-school amateur bicycles, or the occasional creaking of an adolescent break-in.
It was now the shrill of reciprocating and circular saws ripping through rotted wooden floor joists. It was the pounding of sledgehammers into 4-inch-thick concrete by volunteers Mark O’Neill and Paul Scecyna. It was the suggestions of Discover Lansdale Vice President Bill Henning on what to tackle next.
It was the start of revitalization toward a revival of multipurpose proportions.
This provident renaissance is due to building owner Discover Lansdale and its growing volunteer effort.
Every Thursday, between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., volunteers—some of which are showing up for the first time—put their heart and souls (and their lower backs, arms and knees) to work demolishing the unusable wood floor of the 4,550-square-foot building.
“The walls are solid as a rock, and the original ceiling and roof—everything is beautiful. The flooring is another thing. When we pulled up the subfloor to look underneath, we found a lot of joists rotted, and some weren’t connected to the stone walls anymore,” Henning said. “We decided the best thing for the flooring was to pull it all up.”
In its place will go a new floor system, including new footers and joists. The original windows and counterweight freight doors will be restored and resealed, with only three freight doors remaining functional, so they can be opened during events. Henning sees a vision of an official Discover Lansdale office and even an event gift shop.
“Décor-wise, we’d like some display cases with railroad artifacts and railroad pictures on the wall from the Lansdale Historical Society and the Reading Historical Society in Hamburg,” Henning said. “The idea is a theme to show the importance of the railroad in Lansdale and its history.”
Henning called the freight station a “hidden treasure with hidden issues.”
“Surprisingly, it wasn’t all trashed and graffitied up. It was in really good shape,” he said. “I’m disappointed we didn’t find anything good once we pulled it apart, just a railroad spike, a license plate and an old electrical insulator.”
The refurbishment effort has just begun: Discover Lansdale wants to hit a fundraising goal of $350,000, an amount estimated it needs in order to aid in bringing the freight house to a functional, operational and accessible venue. So far, it has reached 21-percent of its goal.
“The idea is it could become a multipurpose space for anybody in the community who can rent it, with two ADA-compliant bathrooms,” Henning said. “It’s a major project. Unfortunately, we don’t have all the money to do the project yet.”
Donations can be made on the Discover Lansdale Freight House page and through GoFundMe. Henning said events like the recent car show and Founders Day, as well as other upcoming events like Cruise Night and Bike Night, help toward the cause.
“We are a long way off in reconstruction,” Henning said. “The biggest focus now is fundraising. Once we are finished [with] demolition, that’s when we can start spending money to get things started.”
The volunteerism, albeit scant, has made sure there is something getting done each week.
“I saw the volunteer post on Facebook, thought it was something cool to do, and I drive by it every day, so curiosity killed the cat,” said volunteer O’Neill, of Green Street in Upper Gwynedd. “I wanted to get in here and see what it was all about.”
O’Neill said he is giving back something to the town.
“I could have been sitting around watching TV, looking at Facebook for hours, but you have to get out and do something,” he said. “I can say I fell down in there and busted my butt making it better.”
O’Neill’s message to on-the-fence volunteers: “What else are you doing?”
This sort of sweat equity will, hopefully, become sweet destiny. Henning foresees a place for wedding receptions, business luncheons, birthday parties and even a venue for Friday Movie Night.
“There are just so many things it can be used for. Maybe we can bring the haunted house back. Lansdale Jaycees had the Haunted House, maybe we’ll have the ‘Fright House,’” he said. “Lansdale residents can benefit from it.”
This October, its grounds will be the site of Oktoberfest, which Lansdale Library has chosen not to plan this year, Henning said.
“The option was, either Oktoberfest goes away, or Discover Lansdale can do it and do it as a fundraiser,” Henning said, adding that Round Guys Brewery and Lansdale Cannoneers are involved in the planning. “The library thought it was more work than it was worth, and we decided we need some projects for fundraising. If all goes right, we’ll continue Oktoberfest, but have the proceeds go to another worthy cause, like the library or Manna.”
The road to success, as the saying goes, is not always paved in gold. To make the freight station viable is going to take a lot of hands and a lot of help.
“The handful of volunteers that come out each week—we are grateful. They put in a lot of work, and work really hard,” Henning said. “Whoever shows up, we put to work.”
Volunteer Scecyna, of Upper Gwynedd, had been to the freight station numerous Thursday nights already to help out. He would love to see train displays inside once completed, and even webcams streaming the freight and passenger lines that come through the town.
“I enjoy it,” he said of volunteering. “I think this is a great idea with the way this place is. It’s a great way to bring it back after all these years.”
However, a lack of volunteers means Discover Lansdale would have to pay somebody to do the work. As such, the nonprofit bumped up its goal from the original $250,000, Henning said.
“It’s mainly to cover the some of the lack of volunteer effort,” he said. “The majority of the community are behind it and are supportive. If we can get everybody in town to donate $5, $10, it would go a long way to our goal.”
Engineering firm Ring Consultants on Lansdale’s Main Street have been working pro bono for the project, Henning said. Wes Carver Electric offered discounted services to get the freight house powered up, and has already installed resources to get temporary electric into the building. Discover Lansdale is presently setting up HVAC and plumbing installation services.
Discover Lansdale bought the building for $60,000 from previous owner Lansdale Parking Authority. It also signed a 99-year lease with the authority for the ground it sits on. Henning said the nonprofit had been setting aside money since its existence to spend on a good opportunity.
“We do a lot of events,” Henning said of Discover Lansdale, “and we do a lot of sponsorships with vendors to pay for the events we do.”
The parcel was purchased for $590,000 by the Lansdale Parking Authority from 111 S Broad St LLC in June 2016, which owned the parcel since 2009, according to Montgomery County land records. The former Lansdale Finishers building in the rear of the parcel remains owned by the LLC, and is the target of the “For Sale” sign, in front of the freight house.
Henning said Discover Lansdale could not pass up the opportunity to purchase the building.
“The closest thing we’ve had (to a multipurpose venue) was Marjeane Caterers. If you wanted a beef and beer, you went to Marjeanes. There’s not really a place in the borough anymore,” Henning said.
Lansdale, he said, was created from the railroad and boomed into an industrial town.
“Guess where all that industry came in and out of the borough? Right here in this building,” he said.
The freight house dates back to 1903—the same construction date as its complement, the Lansdale Train Station at Main Street and Railroad Avenue—and served its purpose until the 1970s. At one time, the sound building housed an auto repair business.
According to Discover Lansdale board member and Lansdale Historical Society President Dick Shearer, the building was the shipping terminal for Heebner Agricultural Works, American Olean Tile Co., Lansdale Tube Co., the Cox Stove Works, and numerous borough hosiery mills. It also transferred goods headed to Norristown or Doylestown. It was accessible in all four directions (to Bethlehem and New England, Philadelphia, Norristown and Doylestown).
“The passenger station got all the love. Guess what didn’t,” Henning said. “Nobody needed it anymore, but we found a need to fill and a need to preserve another historical building. And some people are passionate about other historical buildings that have been lost in Lansdale.”
O’Neill’s family attended a child’s birthday party at the renewed freight house in Quakertown, and he said the Lansdale one would be perfect for community usage.
“It seems like this has a lot of great potential,” he said. “It just has to be something other than vacant.”
