Discover Lansdale and borough visionaries hammer nails into old timber during the Lansdale Freight House groundbreaking May 22, 2025. From left are Ken Seiler of Ring Consulting Group, Helen Harlow Schwartz of Discover Lansdale, Lansdale Borough Public Works Director and Director of Community Development Jason Van Dame, Lansdale Borough President and Discover Lansdale Vice President Mary Fuller, Discover Lansdale President Bill Henning, State Sen. Maria Collett, State Rep. Steve Malagari, Discover Lansdale Secretary Bruce Schwartz, and Lansdale Borough Manager John Ernst. Photo by Tony Di Domizio.
On Thursday, Discover Lansdale officials and government stalwarts gathered under rainy skies to celebrate a new chapter in the 123-year-old freight house
The skies may have wept on Thursday, but under two pop-up canopies, Lansdale’s visionaries turned a sodden afternoon into a celebration of grit, history, and hope.
At the heart of the ceremony stood the Lansdale Freight House, a stoic relic from 1902, long abandoned but never forgotten.
“Welcome all, and thank you for joining us on this wet, rainy afternoon,” Discover Lansdale Bill Henning said, gesturing toward the freight house. “As we all know, Lansdale was born because of the railroad. Phillip Lansdale Fox laid out the railroad right-of-way through this area with a station stop just a block away from here. Before long, a town grew.”
Henning said as the town and industry grew, so did the need for a better train station and a separate one for industrial and commercial freight.
“There, down the street, our beautiful passenger station. SEPTA had done a great job of restoring it many years ago and continues to nicely maintain it. Then up here, our freight station, the workhorse, didn't see the same love through the years,” Henning said. “Once the railroad didn't need it anymore in the early 70's, it saw some various yet limited use through the next decade, after that has sat pretty vacant, longing for a new tenant, then longing just to be saved.”
Henning reminisced of a time when he and Discover Lansdale Vice President and Lansdale Borough Council President Mary Fuller stood across the street in 2016, wondering if Discover Lansdale could actually purchase the old freight house.
“We were always looking for a good project opportunity for Discover Lansdale, something we could sink our teeth into, something that would benefit the community. For many years, at least a couple of decades, I tried to find ways to save this iconic Lansdale building,” Henning said, bringing the idea to a Discover Lansdale board that was skeptical, yet bought into the concept.
“We were able to scrape together enough money to make the purchase, but we knew we had our work cut out to do the needed repairs. Initial estimates sounded doable, though once our awesome volunteers, a whole bunch of great people from throughout the community, started digging in, we soon discovered that a lot more was really needed to get it to the point of usability,” Henning said.
Belief turned into action. Volunteers jacked up concrete, cleared rot, and waged war on inflation and pandemic setbacks.
“(Discover Lansdale Secretary and Board member) Bruce Schwartz made a gallant effort with grant applications,” Henning said.
By Tony Di Domizio Grants flowed from the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, thanks to State Rep. Steve Malagari and Sen. Maria Collett.
“We continue to search for more fundraising and donation opportunities, for this is just our first phase, and we still have a financial hole to fill,” Henning said.
He thanked companies like Erhardt Mechanical, donating needed ductwork components, and financial donations from places like Univest Financial. Ken Seiler and his Ring Consulting Group in Lansdale made it possible through their hard work and contributions, he said. Jessica Ziegler-Cihlar of Village Architecture & Preservation was thanked for seeing Discover Lansdale’s vision and not losing it as she put it on paper, as well as contractor Gordon H. Baver, who Henning said has been cooperative.
“This goal, the Lansdale Freight House, will be a welcome center for our community, a place where people can go to learn what is going on in Lansdale, what Lansdale has to offer, and get all the information on all upcoming events in Lansdale, and not just Discover Lansdale events,” Henning said. “And it will be a community rental event space for both public and private events. There isn't a space like this throughout our area. I can't help but get excited at the unlimited potential this building has for our residents, our community, and our businesses throughout our town.”
The renovated freight house will not just be a static tribute to history. Plans call for a welcome center, a community hub for events public and private, and an interpretive display celebrating Lansdale’s rich industrial heritage.
Schwartz summed up the determination behind the project: “It is dismal, dark and damp, but I guarantee you, for members of our team that spent the last nine years trying to get this project to this day today, it is a great and shiny day for us, for Lansdale and for our pet project.”
Schwartz said Lansdale has flipped the page.
“We move from the past to the future. We begin to start building what this will be, a facility for the next century,” he said. “This building will be special and we will be turning it into a community amenity for the next 100 years.”
Fuller said the project was so important to the borough because it means preserving an important piece of Lansdale’s history. Far too many of Lansdale’s historic sites – and even those sites which may not be historic, but mean something important to someone – have vanished, such as the Music Hall and Hotel Tremont.
“The beauty of today is that it was important for Discover Lansdale because we knew it was important to the residents of Lansdale to restore and not knock down this building,” Fuller said. “I can’t say enough about Bill and his desire and dream to make the building what it is going to be.”
Fuller said the Freight House is positioned two blocks off Main Street and down the way from the Lansdale Train Station and Borough Hall. Plus – plenty of parking.
“It can be a shining star for things happening in Lansdale. This is a unique space,” she said, adding the possibility of local eateries like El Limon, AAA Catering, Ristorante Toscano and Giuliano’s Deli to cater functions at the building.
“I’m looking forward to the day we finally have our first event in here,” she said. “We will be a stopping point for all things area-wide.”
Borough Manager John Ernst said it was a significant project for Lansdale, and offered support to Discover Lansdale during its renovations.
“We will be there for the rest of the project,” he said.
Collett said the last time she gathered at the Freight House was in 2022 when it was announced that $1 million in state grants were secured for the building.
“We secured that to help rehabilitate this historic Reading Railroad Freight House, which is one of the most iconic building here in Lansdale,” she said. “It truly does take a village and I know it has been many years in the making. It’s incredible to see just how much this community values its history and how you’re leveraging that history is a key part of revitalization efforts.”
Discover Lansdale and borough visionaries hammer nails into old timber during the Lansdale Freight House groundbreaking May 22, 2025. From left are Ken Seiler of Ring Consulting Group, Helen Harlow Schwartz of Discover Lansdale, Lansdale Borough Public Works Director and Director of Community Development Jason Van Dame, Lansdale Borough President and Discover Lansdale Vice President Mary Fuller, Discover Lansdale President Bill Henning, State Sen. Maria Collett, State Rep. Steve Malagari, Discover Lansdale Secretary Bruce Schwartz, and Lansdale Borough Manager John Ernst.“Standing here, is not just stone and mortar and timber, but a story— it’s a story of hard work, it’s a story of history, and now a hope for our future,” said Malagari, a hometown son who once toyed with opening a brew pub at the location many years ago. “The Lansdale Freight House once pulsed with energy of industry and lifeblood of Montgomery County and for decades it sat silent, a faded reminder of our past.”
Malgari said the building now has new life, thanks to tireless efforts of volunteers and support from the Commonwealth.
“Recognizing history and progress can and should move forward hand-in-hand,” he said. “This project is a gamechanger for how we activate and celebrate public space in Lansdale.”
As nine officials stood to each hammer a nail into three pieces of old freight house timber emblazoned with the Lansdale Freight House logo, it reverberated with the promise of a new chapter, where the Lansdale Freight House had not just been saved—it had been reborn.
