{"nrhp_refnum":"84003514","name":"Reading Railroad Pottstown Station","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"High St. between Hanover and York Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pottstown","county":"Montgomery County","state":"PA","lat":40.24469931900006,"lon":-75.65213477199995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-01-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story Neo-Classical railroad station in downtown Pottstown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, with an attached office building, waiting shelter and freight platforms, built in 1928 for the Reading Company.","why_significant":"The station is presented as a very good example of a late-1920s Reading station, built when the company had scaled back its operations. Its design is described as unusually sophisticated for the period, and it is said to be closer in character to the earlier architect-designed stations than to its contemporaries. The nomination also ties the line's history to the development of Pottstown and the Schuylkill Valley.","narrative":"Built in 1928 on High Street in downtown Pottstown, the Reading Railroad station is a two-story Neo-Classical building of warm stone with terra cotta detailing. Designed by Clark Dillenbeck, the Reading Company's chief engineer, it includes a central waiting room flanked by one-story wings, a separate two-story office building, a copper canopy over the platform, and terra cotta lion's heads that grip the iron canopy supports. The station was among a small group of Reading stations built in the late 1920s, when the company, under financial strain, favored simpler utilitarian designs. It is regarded as more refined than its contemporaries and closer in character to the architect-designed stations of earlier decades. Its significance rests on its role in the Philadelphia and Reading line's history, which began with an 1833 charter and served the anthracite trade and Schuylkill Valley, and on its design quality within the company's late building program.","period_of_significance":"1928","architect_builder":"Clark Dillenbeck (architect); William Hampton (builder)","architectural_style":"Neo-Classical","criteria":[],"status_note":"Original entrance doors are presently boarded over.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.268983-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/84003514.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003514/37166bd8ef-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003514/37166bd8ef-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Skabat169","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pottstown_RDG_Station.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Skabat169</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pottstown_RDG_Station.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"85001955","name":"Old Pottstown Historic District (Additional Documentation)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/old-pottstown-historic-district-additional-documentation-85001955/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997862","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottstown_station","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7300550"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/montgomery-county/reading-railroad-pottstown-station-84003514/"}