Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger Station, Warren Pennsylvania
Built in 1868 and 1869, the Pennsylvania Railroad passenger depot in Warren was one of the few fine examples of brick depot construction remaining in northwestern Pennsylvania. The station had been unused since 1965, and its condition was sadly deteriorated, but it still retained the firm lines and character of its early days when Warren was the hub of extensive railroad activity, both freight and passenger, for three separate railroads. Several attempts were made to save the station, unfortunately it was demolished in 1986.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Depot was a two story painted brick structure somewhat more than one hundred years old. As befits a building standing beside railroad tracks and designed to serve passengers boarding and alighting at various points, it was much longer (146 feet) than high or wide (40 feet), and adding to its considerable length were wide overhanging roofs at the first floor level upheld by strong posts and curved wooden brackets which completely surround the central structure and offer shelter form the elements and a kind of all-weather promenade. This wide, low roof also creates heavy shadow patterns which seem to tie the building firmly to the ground. At the south end of the station was a one story baggage room which extended the first story roof even further in that direction, and under this shelter the baggage wagons usually stood when not in use.
The fenestration of the second story consisted of five pairs of arched windows, and the long horizontal roof line was interrupted in the center by a gable pierced by one round window. First floor fenestration repeated that of the top story excepting that two sets of double doors took the place of windows on each side of the central bay. On all facades the brickwork was extended to form panels framing the several bays and gables. Both of the long sides of the building were identical. External alterations to the structure included the removal of a central cupola, three chimneys, and the wooden brackets under the eaves of the gable ends. The stick-style filling on the four gables had also been removed, and the first floor roof had been extended to a width of twenty feet. The lines of the building were clean, the plan symmetrical and the structure seemed basically sound though some deterioration had occurred around the eaves and corners of the roof. The spacious area surrounding the building was taken over for parking by a neighboring factory and the presence of several hundred automobiles some under the very eaves of the station, did much to conceal the earlier pleasing appearance and to destroy the original plan for an adjacent park.
Inside rooms on the ground floor, besides the baggage room already mentioned, consisted of two waiting rooms separated by a ticket office and connected by a narrow corridor. Upstairs rooms, however arranged and divided, were doubtless used for dormitory and storage purposes and were not part of the public areas.
