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Photos and stories about the rich history of The Reporter's coverage area. Readers are encouraged to submit their own stories and photos for this blog and the weekly Remember When feature in The Reporter, which runs on Mondays. Contact us by email at citydesk@thereporteronline.com, or write us at 307 Derstine Avenue, Lansdale, PA 19446 for details.

Monday, March 24, 2008

On track


The Lansdale Historical Society is sharing one of its vintage photos with us today.

According to society maven Dick Shearer, this is a view of Main Street and Susquehanna Avenue sometime around 1910 (we think). The trolley on Main Street, at left, was part of the Lehigh Valley Traction Line, which connected Allentown to Philadelphia through North Wales to Erdenheim.

It later became the Liberty Bell Route, which went out of service in 1951 when LVT shifted to buses.

The trolley on the right was at the eastern terminus of the Montgomery Transit line, which operated between Lansdale and Norristown. It was later taken over by LVT in 1912, as the larger trolley lines absorbed the smaller ones and consolidated services.

Today, Lansdale is considered a transportation hub with the SEPTA R5 commuter rail line and SEPTA bus routes converging in the center of town.

But the same was true back in 1900-02, when these two trolley lines came to town and established stations within a block or so of the Philadelphia and Reading train stop.

A year later, in 1903, the P&R built the present railroad station to meet the increasing need for public transit.

It would be more than a decade before the automobile started impacting their ridership.

The buildings along Susquehanna Avenue were razed during Lansdale’s Urban Renewal Project of the 1960s.

Of Course the Lansdale National Bank building (now Wachovia) is still there, although it received a new facade and was enlarged over the years.

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