The historic Mill Hall train station
MILL HALL - It's one of the last surviving remnants of a glorious
period of railroading in Pennsylvania, a time when millions of tons
of coal were transported across the state by rail to feed the
voracious appetites of the New York Central railroad's steam
locomotives.
On the hard wood planks of the interior of the Mill Hall train
station, such luminaries as William H. Vanderbilt (at the time the
nation's wealthiest individual), author Mark Twain and State Senator
S.L. Peale (for whom the town of Peale, PA was named) may well have
trod.
In the 1950s, the legendary New York Central locomotive Number 999 —
which once shattered the land speed records and is now housed at the
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago — paused in Mill Hall to
take on passengers.
In 1980, the station was the first recipient of the Bruce A. Bechdel
Memorial Preservation Award, named for a passionate local historic
preservationist, and presented just weeks after his death. This being
the same Bruce Bechdel, by the way, who was the subject of a 2006 New
York Times best seller penned by his daughter, Alison.
The saying, "If these walls could talk" might almost have been
written specifically for the Mill Hall train station, and if local
supporters have their way, a spectacular new chapter may soon be
written for this seemingly humble little depot.
Tonight, Lock Haven City Council will decide the fate of this
historic structure, a fate that has been heavily influenced by
financial contributions by civic organizations and individual donors
and ongoing initiatives by county, city and state government, public
utilities, and private industry.
The informal "Save the Mill Hall Depot" movement also has been fueled
by the recent losses of local historic structures like the former
Samuel Christ house on West Main Street, which was demolished earlier
this summer to make way for a parking lot for Lock Haven University's
East Campus.
It all began several months ago, when the Mill Hall train station's
current owner, Bob Rightnour, announced his desire to expand his
business onto the property upon which the station now stands.
Rightnour Manufacturing Co, located adjacent to the station, has a
separate office in Mingoville, but Rightnour hopes to consolidate all
of his operations in Mill Hall. To do that, he simply needs more
space. However he also wants the station preserved and is offering
the property for free to anyone who can do so.
That requires moving the one-story, wood frame structure to another
spot, which will cost an estimated $60,000. An empty lot on Bald
Eagle Street behind City Hall and next to the Norfolk Southern
railroad tracks would be the ideal place for the relocated station,
according to Elisabeth Lynch, county planning department assistant
and one of the people driving the effort to save the station.
As of last Monday, the amount available to save the property stood at
only $37,400, though local efforts at fundraising have been ongoing.
Because of the funding shortfall, City Council now must re-visit its
commitment to donate the empty Bald Eagle Street lot, and will
reportedly make its decision after getting a fundraising update from
City Planner Leonora Hannegan tonight.
Meanwhile Rightnour Manufacturing, which previously delayed its
expansion for the sake of the train station, will start construction
in mid October.
In other words, the clock is ticking, and what happens in the hours
leading up to tonight's council meeting may determine whether another
piece of Clinton County's architectural history remains intact or
goes the way of the wrecking ball.
Among the last of its kind
Sadly, demolition is an all-too common fate for structures like the
Mill Hall train station.
According to Jeff Feldmeier, an historian who has spent years
researching the New York Central-Beech Creek Railroad, for which the
Mill Hall depot was originally constructed, "There are only a handful
of stations surviving in what was the Beech Creek district. The
stations have become few and far between as the railroad has
consolidated operations."
Modern transit companies, Feldmeier said, "don't generally need small-
town facilities. They have centralized facilities that handle a
broad area. So over the course of decades, small town stations were
phased out. When that happened, the railroad just simply removed
them. They bulldozed them or burned them down or, in luckier cases,
sold them off. That was the case with the Mill Hall station."
Indeed, the building was extremely lucky to have survived this type
of downsizing and, in 1952, came under the stewardship of a local
couple who seemed devoted to the structure. At that time the station
was rented as office space for the Valley Oil and Gas Co., owned and
operated by Frank Davenport. Davenport and his wife purchased the
building and surrounding property for less than $7,000 about 10 years
later.
Today, Feldmeier said, the Mill Hall station "is one of the few
remaining examples of a New York Central station in the territory."
He added that "Another interesting thing about that station is that
it was a union station, meaning that more than one railroad used it.
As far as I know there were only two such union stations, and the
other was in Keating, and that's long gone.
"The other railroad that used it was the Central Railroad of
Pennsylvania. That ran from Mill Hall down to Bellefonte. So someone
who was a passenger on the Beech Creek railroad coming out of
Clearfield could go to Mill Hall and take the Central Railroad down
to Bellefonte."
The construction of a railroad from Bellefonte to Mill Hall began a
decade after the New York Central-Beech Creek depot was built,
according to a June 15, 1893 account in the Clinton Democrat
newspaper.
"J.W. Gephart, esq., is devoting most of his time in the construction
of a new railroad from Bellefonte to Mill Hall," the paper
reported. "The work of grading the road was commenced about one month
ago, and since then additional numbers of men have been put to work
each week until the army of workers number nearly 400. There are
about 300 knights of the pick and shovel at work grading the road in
the vicinity of Hecia."
Also being erected at Mill Hall, the paper reported, was "A large
boarding shanty… for the accommodation of 75 laborers who will
commence work today. This number will be increased in a few days, so
the work will be pushed along very rapidly."
Gephart, the paper said, arranged "for the accommodation of a large
force of men, which will be brought to work. It's a go and before the
winter months have come trains will be running on the new road
between Mill Hall and Bellefonte."
One hundred and 14 years later, Feldmeier said, it's extremely rare
to find a train station that performed the duties of the Mill Hall
depot.
"And as far as the Central Railroad, there's only the Mill Hall
station and two others that survive from that railroad. It comes back
to the fact that these stations are just not that common anymore.
There's just so few examples of these structures left in the area, it
would be a shame not to save one, to let it slip through the fingers."
Born of King Coal
Built in the early 1880s, the Mill Hall Train station was one stop on
the 113-mile New York Central-Beech Creek railroad when it first
opened to the public, according to Feldmeier.
"Mill Hall was part of New York Central's Beech Creek District, which
ran all the way from Jersey Shore to Cherry Tree, Indiana County," he
said. "The main line itself on the Beech Creek rail ran from Jersey
Shore down to Mahaffey. Avis was the big train yard and shop town
nearby. There's still a large yard in Newberry Junction, down by
Williamsport, where you changed trains with the Reading line."
At that time, Feldmeier said, one could take a train from Mill Hall
to New York City, changing several times along the way on the nearly
12-hour journey. If one could afford a sleeper car, however, no
changeover was necessary.
"For a time they even had a sleeper car on that train," he said. "So
if you had a berth in a sleeper car, you wouldn't even have to change
trains. They just shifted the car around for you."
Construction on the Beech Creek line began in 1883 on the eastern end
at Jersey Shore, Feldmeier said, and "the drive to build that line
was to in-source New York Central's coal supply for locomotives,
station heat, things like that. Before that the company was buying
coal on the open market and they got to the point where they felt
they were being gouged."
According to Feldmeier, the owners of the New York Central Railroad,
the Vanderbilt family, were tired of paying what they considered
exorbitant prices for coal so to save money, they decided to mine
their own.
"So they created the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Co. They decided to
essentially take control of their own coal supply, and to reach these
coal fields, they built the Beech Creek Railroad."
Much of the land upon which the Vanderbilts constructed their new
railroad was owned by Lock Haven resident Samuel Richard Peale, a
former state senator who lived in a lavishly appointed home
called "Hillside" on North Fairview Street.
Peale's obituary, published in The Express on August 3, 1910,
reported that, "In 1881, he began purchasing coal lands in Clearfield
County and the following year bought many thousand acres of coal
lands on Moshannon creek, near Kylertown."
The obituary went on to state that, "The late William H. Vanderbilt
was later led to purchase a half interest in the lands and also with
the building of the Beech Creek railroad, with which project the
deceased was so intimately connected, to open up the new Clearfield
bituminous coal fields. "Mr. Peale was the general solicitor of the
new road from 1882 until 1895. He had charge of the purchase of the
right of way for the Beech Creek railroad. He was instrumental in
organizing large and prosperous coal interests affiliated with the
New York Central lines."
William H. Vanderbilt, by the way, was the son of "Commodore"
Cornelius Vanderbilt, who left William the vast majority of his huge
fortune when he died in 1877, estimated at $100 million, an
astounding $143 billion in today's currency (yes, that $143 billion,
with a "b").
Eventually a sizeable chunk of that fortune was passed down to
William Vanderbilt's granddaughter, author and fashion designer
Gloria Vanderbilt, mother of CNN reporter Anderson Cooper.
"The Vanderbilts were extremely involved in the operation of the
railroad," Feldmeier said. "They made at least one or two trips to
Clearfield on the Beech Creek line and overnighted there. They were
certainly interested in the area and recognized its importance."
"They were all heavily involved in the New York Central's affairs,"
he added. "They were getting an earful from their purchasing people
about their coal supply costs, and that's what drove their decision
to go deep into the Pennsylvania coal fields."
Legendary stopovers
Other notable figures that traveled along the Beech Creek rails
included beloved author Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain.
"Mark Twain traveled the line," Feldmeier said. "He had an aunt that
lived in Peale and I understand he visited there. He also had stock
in the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Co., which was mining in that area."
Whether the legendary literary figure stepped off the train to
stretch his legs when the locomotive came to a stop in Mill Hall is,
sadly, lost to history. Another legend known to have stopped on the
rails outside the Mill Hall station was of the non-human variety, and
it is as celebrated today as it was in its prime, regularly marveled
over by members of the general public.
On May 10, 1893, history was made when New York Central Engine 999
and its attached passenger train, the Empire State Express, broke the
world's land-speed record by racing at 121.5 miles per hour on a
route that ran from Syracuse to Buffalo, N.Y. No other vehicle of any
kind had reached speeds of over 100 miles per hour at that time, and
it would be another decade before another locomotive matched the
999's velocity.
"The New York Central's 999 locomotive set a world speed record for
that time, 121 miles an hour," Feldmeier said. "This locomotive was,
in the latter stages of its life, downgraded and put into branch line
service and worked the Beech Creek line. Twice in the 1950s it passed
down the Beech Creek line to Clearfield and would have passed through
Mill Hall."
After its period of service on the Beech Creek line ended, however,
the famous locomotive seemed headed for an ignoble end.
"It ended up in the scrap line in Avis," Feldmeier said. "That's when
some superintendent happened to notice it and realized its historical
significance. So it was pulled out of the scrap line and restored."
In 1962, he said, "the railroad donated it to the Museum of Science
and Industry in Chicago and people can go and see it today. It's the
only steam locomotive in existence today that worked the Beech Creek
line."
At about the same time the 999 found its new Chicago home, the little
depot in Mill Hall came under the ownership of the Davenports, who
had already been renting the facility for a decade and who spent
$25,000 to renovate the interior and exterior of the station after
signing deed to the property.
For 15 years after the Davenports first began occupying the station,
it continued to feel the rumble of trains passing by it, though the
station itself no longer served in an official capacity for the
railroad. In 1966, rail traffic over much of its line was
discontinued.
"Before we bought the station it probably had not been painted for 20
years," Frank Davenport told The Express in 1980. "Luckily it was
constructed sturdily with thick lumber enabling it to withstand the
neglect and weather."
The Davenports received the Bruce A. Bechdel Memorial Preservation
Award by the Clinton County Historical Society that year, just weeks
after the death of former Clinton County Historical Society Chairman
Bruce Bechdel, whose life and death has since been chronicled in his
daughter's best-selling memoir.
According to the Clinton County Historic Sites Survey, compiled
during the period in which the Davenports owned the
station, "Architecturally, this building is typical of the railroad
vernacular architecture. Its most atypical feature is its wide hip
roof. The height of the roof is comparable to the height of the first
story. Other features of importance include the wide projecting
overhand supported by angel bracing, the projecting ticket window
bay, and the 9-over-9 windows."
The Survey went on to report that, "This structure ... is all that
remains in Mill Hall Borough providing evidence that there was a
Beech Creek, Clearfield & Southwestern Railroad."
Frank Davenport said that in the station's prime it housed seven
employees and that at the time of the award in 1980 his company
employed 15.
Accomodations for women
"It might be interesting to note that in the heyday of the railroad,
there were ladies' and men's waiting rooms at the station in Mill
Hall," Davenport said.
In fact, in 1904 the Clinton County Times reported that, "It is
indeed good news that the N.Y.C. Railroad Co. has determined to erect
a new waiting station with two departments, one for men and one for
women, and a freight station separate from the waiting room. This is
an accommodation the company owes their patrons
"The increased travel on this division is growing daily and is now
far above the Pennsy (the competing Pennsylvania Railroad) at this
point. As it now is, the ladies are either compelled to stand outside
or sit in a cloud of tobacco smoke, and the improvement is therefore
a necessity."
Twenty seven years after the Davenports won their preservation award,
the depot is once again in need of restoration. During its most
recent incarnation as a restaurant, it was substantially upgraded,
with a commercial kitchen and customer seating.
Money is already being earmarked for that restoration, should the
building be saved from demolition. Feldmeier has contributed about
six historic images of the building and copies of blueprints of other
standard model New York Central depots he had in his private
collection.
The Feldmeier materials will help to serve as a guideline as the
efforts to save and restore the structure continue to ramp up. Those
efforts began last Spring, said Lynch, of the county planning
department.
"It started in the Borough of Mill Hall in, I think, April," Lynch
said. "They were talking about it during the borough planning
meeting, and members were really upset that they heard the train
station was going to be torn down, and they felt kind of hopeless. So
I went over to the train station and talked to the owner of the
building, Bob Rightnour. He was just as upset as everybody else. He
was really concerned, but he needed the space."
Rightnour, Lynch said, "has put everything on hold so we can do this.
It's had a financial impact on him because he has to close his
Mingoville plant and move everything here. But he can't stop paying
for bills at the Mingoville plant until he can move everything and
all of his crew down here to Mill Hall. So he's carrying two loads
right now. He's doing that for the project."
After her initial conversations with Rightnour, Lynch said, "I came
back and talked to the planning director, Tim Halliday, and found him
very supportive even though we all knew it was a long shot. So what I
did, for the next three months – as a volunteer – was go around and
collect information to see how feasible it was."
A few complicated dead ends followed, Lynch, said, before City
Planner Leonora Hannagan proposed that the city-owned Bald Eagle
Street lot would be the perfect new home for the building. Lynch went
before City Council in July and found them supportive, but concerned
about costs and leery about spending taxpayer money on the project.
After an article on the "Save the Mill Hall Depot" movement appeared
in The Express, two retired professors offered a $15,000 donation to
move the building, which added substantial momentum to the project.
"Once we got that $15,000, that was really the catalyst," Lynch
said. "Having some funds to back up the concept, or the dream, made
it a potential reality."
Soon in-kind services were offered by public utilities like PPL,
Comcast, Verizon, Norfolk Southern and the Wayne Township Landfill.
Financial support from the Clinton County commissioners, via the
environmental fund, came next.
In addition to the land parcel, the City of Lock Haven donated staff
time by Hannagan and city code enforcement officer Dave Romig to try
to iron out additional details. State Rep. Hanna earmarked $10,000
for the building's restoration.
Donations began trickling in from local civic organizations and
individuals. Figures on how much money has been raised – and whether
it is enough – will be released tonight when Hannegan makes her
presentation to City Council.
Until then, the fate of the Mill Hall train station remains in
question.
"Once the building is there, the grant money will come and
restoration can begin, but it's just getting the building there,"
Lynch said.
If the project comes to fruition, and the Mill Hall train station
finds itself rolling down Route 220 to the Lock Haven Exit, down the
off-ramp and settling into a foundation in its new home across Bald
Eagle Street from the old National Hotel, it will happen as a result
of substantial collaboration between city, county and state
government, private sector business and individual philanthropy.
"It's a textbook example of cooperation," Lynch said.
Section: News Posted: 9/24/2007
