This event is designed for members who would like to see the facility and/or may have items to donate to the archives.

There is no fee for this event.

Your Annual Meeting badge is required, and you must sign the Visitors’ Log in the station waiting room upon arrival.

(Tim Garner photo)

The PRRT&HS Archives is in the former PRR Lewistown Station, believed to be one of the oldest surviving structures built by the PRR, completed in 1849 as a freight handling warehouse. The building was renovated and converted into a passenger station in 1868.

It is 63 miles (about 1 hour) northwest of our hotel via US 22. You’ll have a chance to see the interior of the structure and the Society’s repository of PRR records and research materials.

During its heyday, the station faced the 4-track PRR Middle Division mainline, while behind it was PRR’s connection to its Lewistown & Sunbury and Milroy Branches. Today, the station faces a busy 2-track Norfolk Southern mainline – the third successor to the PRR (Penn Central from 1968 to 1976, Conrail from 1976 to 1998)

On February 1, 1985, exactly 17 years after the last PRR train ran, Amtrak transferred ownership of the Lewistown Station to the PRRT&HS at a ceremony following two years of negotiations. Through the diligent efforts of many PRRT&HS members, the station was fully restored to house the archives and remains a station stop for Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian twice a day.

Have items to donate for the Lewistown Archives? Please mark them “Lewistown” with your name and address and hand them to volunteers at the PRRT&HS Table in the Vendor Room during normal hours. They must be dropped off no later than 3pm on Saturday. You may also drop them off at the Archives on Sunday if you plan to attend the open house.

(Tim Garner photo)

If you’d like to know more about the Lewistown station, the community that surrounds it, and the railroad that served it, be sure to read Lewistown and the Pennsylvania Railroad – From Moccasins to Steel Wheels (PRRT&HS, ©2000).