Allen Lane (SEPTA station)

Infobox Station
name=Allen Lane
type=SEPTA regional rail


image_size=250
image_caption=
address=Cresheim Road & Allen Lane
Mount Airy, Philadelphia, PA
coordinates=
line= rail color box|system=SEPTA|line=R8
other=
structure=
platform=
depth=
levels=
tracks=2
parking=6 spaces
bicycle=
baggage_check=
passengers=
pass_year=
pass_percent=
pass_system=
opened=1880
closed=
rebuilt=
electrified=
ADA=Yes
code=
owned=SEPTA
zone=2
former=
services=s-rail|title=SEPTA
mpassengers=

Allen Lane Station is a SEPTA Regional Rail station at 200 West Allens Lane in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The station stands at the intersection of Allens Lane and Cresheim Road. The station building was built circa 1880, according to the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings project. Like many in Philadelphia, it retains much of its Victorian/Edwardian appearance.

The station is in zone 2 on the SEPTA R8 Chestnut Hill West Line, on former Pennsylvania Railroad tracks, and is 10.1 track miles from Suburban Station. In 2004, this station saw 263 boardings on an average weekday.

A coffeeshop, Coffee Junction, occupies most of the ground floor of the station building.

The name: "Allen" vs "Allen's" vs "Allens"

Allen Lane station got its name from the adjoining street, Allens Lane, which was named for William Allen, a prominent man of colonial-era Pennsylvania. His estate, Mount Airy (from which the surrounding Mount Airy neighborhood got its name), was at the top of the hill where Allens Lane meets Germantown Avenue. (The site is now the campus of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia). Since at least the 19th century, there has been variation in the lane's name between "Allen", "Allen's", and "Allens", in part because its derivation is (understandably) not well known except by locals interested in Philadelphia history. Today, through maps and signage, the names have reached a level of written codification that leaves the lane's name written consistently as "Allens" and the station's name written consistently as "Allen". Colloquially, the Allen/Allen's/Allens variation persists in local speech, such as when R8 train conductors sometimes announce the stop with the genitive inflection. Interestingly, the non-genitive variation that became the codified station name may have been reinforced by a timetable printer's error—the Pennsylvania Railroad's timetables were printed by the firm of Allen, Lane & Scott.

Restoration and renovation

Allen Lane Station is undergoing a two-phase restoration and renovation project. The first phase of work on the historic station building and shelters was completed in September 1999. A second phase, originally scheduled to be completed by fall 2006 according to SEPTA's Capital Budget report, is delayed. It will include building new high-level platforms, stairways, canopies, and pedestrian overpass. (The existing pedestrian overpass retains its original [and nowadays very desirable] Victorian/Edwardian appearance, but its roof is rotting off.) No construction had started on these structures as of September 2008.

External links

* [http://www.septa.org/maps/click_map/allen_lane.html SEPTA - Allen Lane Station]
*Existing Railroad Stations in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
** [http://www.west2k.com/papix/allenlaneold.jpgOld Allen Lane PRR Station photo]
** [http://www.west2k.com/papix/allenlane.jpg2005 Rob Mandeville photo]