Add Bethlehem Union Station to the National Register of Historic Places!

Add Bethlehem Union Station to the National Register of Historic Places!

37 have signed. Let’s get to 50!
Started
Petition to
Joe Biden and

Why this petition matters

Started by Dante Medori

Bethlehem Union Station is a historic former train station located in the South Side neighborhood of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1924 by the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Reading Railroad, replacing an earlier station built in 1867. Passenger service to Philadelphia on the SEPTA Regional Rail Bethlehem Line ran until 1981 when SEPTA cancel all of its diesel train services.

In 1745, the Crown Inn was established as Bethlehem's first public house to serve stagecoach travelers. It soon became an critical rendezvous point in the city, even after a ferry across the Lehigh River was replaced with a bridge in 1794. The Lehigh Valley Railroad and North Pennsylvania Railroad both reached Bethlehem by 1855; in 1857, the Crown Inn was subsequently demolished to allow a new junction between the two railroads at the Lehigh Valley RR South Bethlehem station. Both railroads built the Bethlehem Union Station that still stands today.

In 1962 both the Reading and the Lehigh Valley railroads attempted to auction off the station building but neither railroad succeeded and both folded into Conrail in 1976.

Under the brand name of SEPTA, Conrail provided serves from Philadelphia to Bethlehem to Allentown until 1981.

In 2002, the station was purchased by St Luke's hospital for medical office use. However in 2011 and 2013 most of the offices in the old station building were moved to a different nearby building, Though the old station is still occupied by St Luke's.

37 have signed. Let’s get to 50!