{"nrhp_refnum":"74001311","name":"Lehigh Valley Railroad Station","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"W. Buffalo St. and Taughannock Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Ithaca","county":"Tompkins County","state":"NY","lat":42.44130639800005,"lon":-76.51097956499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-12-31","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-building railroad complex in Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York, at West Buffalo Street and Taughannock Boulevard: a passenger station built in 1898 and a freight station about a hundred feet to the northeast.","why_significant":"The 1898 station was built for a large passenger, express and heavy mail operation. It marked the culmination of nearly seventy-five years of railroading in Ithaca and the era of consolidation in which the Lehigh Valley Railroad played a key role. The depot also figured in the popular culture of twentieth-century Ithaca life, and the nomination notes its successful adaptive use as a restaurant.","narrative":"Two railroad buildings on Ithaca's waterfront make up the Lehigh Valley Railroad complex: a passenger station completed in 1898 and a frame freight station standing about a hundred feet to the northeast. The passenger station is a massive square colonial revival building with Romanesque feeling, built of tan-yellow brick on a rough-faced stone base, with a pedimented porte-cochere and a street clock on a Corinthian column. It was built to handle heavy passenger, express and mail traffic, and it capped nearly three-quarters of a century of railroading in Ithaca, including the consolidation that followed the Panic of 1873. Excursion and through trains made it a popular local gathering place. The last passenger train left in 1961, and the building became a restaurant in 1966, with railroad cars used as dining rooms. The freight station, a long gray frame building with a station-master's lookout, was in poor condition at the time of nomination and was seen as adaptable to recreational use.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date 1898)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Colonial revival with Romanesque feeling","criteria":[],"status_note":"The passenger station operates as a restaurant (opened 1966) after the last passenger train left in 1961. The freight station is described as deteriorating and used mostly for storage.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.573072-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/74001311.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001311/691a64ab6c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001311/691a64ab6c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Jerrye &amp; Roy Klotz, MD","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LEHIGH_VALLEY_RAILROAD_STATION,_ITHACA,_TOMPKINS_COUNTY.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jerrye &amp;amp; Roy Klotz, MD</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LEHIGH_VALLEY_RAILROAD_STATION,_ITHACA,_TOMPKINS_COUNTY.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75322512","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_station_(Lehigh_Valley_Railroad)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6518860"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/tompkins-county/lehigh-valley-railroad-station-74001311/"}