Traveling to History: Eight
KEEPING HISTORY ALIVE: A VISIT TO THE MECHANICSBURG RAILROAD STATION AND STATIONMASTER’S HOUSE
By James F. Lee
Mechanicsburg Railroad Station with its distinctive running trim accenting the roof. The Stationmaster’s House is to the right. Trains still pass through daily on the rail line. Photo by James F. Lee.
It’s hard to miss the shiny silver locomotive bell from an old Pennsylvania Railroad steam engine mounted on a pedestal. Bells on steam engines had to be loud enough (and big enough) to be heard over the whistle of the steam engines, alerting people of a train’s approach. This one looks like it would do the trick.
I learned this at the Mechanicsburg Museum in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, a small museum housed in a brick one-story train station built in 1867 by the Cumberland Valley Railroad (CVRR). Next door is the Stationmaster’s House built the year before. Also on the site is a Freight Station built-in 1886, housing rotating exhibits and the museum’s gift shop.
The museum is currently closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, but with the new vaccines now available, it’s just a matter of time before it is back in business.
The interior of the Mechanicsburg Museum reflects the 1860s. Photo by James F. Lee.
Chartered in 1835, the CVRR was one of the oldest railroads in Pennsylvania, transforming Mechanicsburg from a sleepy market town into a bustling commercial center. By the 1880s, the railroad ran passengers and freight from Harrisburg to Winchester, Virginia. And by the early 1900s, as many as 24 trains passed through Mechanicsburg each day. The Pennsylvania Railroad acquired the CVRR in 1919.
“The Cumberland Valley Railroad made this area blossom,” said Beverly Bone, currently Acquisitions Chair of the Mechanicsburg Museum Association.
A locomotive bell on display at the Mechanicsburg Museum. Bells had to be large enough and loud enough to be heard above the roar of the steam engines. Photo by James F. Lee.
It also played an important role during the Civil War. As I stood on the station platform overlooking the still-active rail line, it was easy to imagine Union troops passing through on trains southward to the front, or defeated Confederate soldiers being transported northbound to Harrisburg and prisoner-of-war camps.
Today the brick passenger station reflects the 1860s. Two rows of running trim in a circular pattern accent its roof. A four-wheel baggage cart out front seems to wait for the next arrival. Inside, a mannequin of a woman in a colorful hat and muffler stands by the ticket window underneath a sign listing stops from Mechanicsburg to points south. I looked at the posted schedule and noted that trains leaving Harrisburg at 4:57 a.m. arrived at Mechanicsburg 19 minutes later after stops at Lemoyne, White Hill, and Shiremanstown. Passengers could make the entire 116-mile run from Harrisburg to Winchester, Virginia, arriving at 9:20 a.m.
A map of the Cumberland Valley Railroad in 1919. Passengers could travel from Harrisburg to Winchester, Virginia in about 4 hours. {{PD-US}}.
Photos of CVRR train stations from Mechanicsburg to Winchester adorn an upper wall near the ceiling, and several glass cases contain artifacts such as train tickets, freight bills, and a foreman’s tool report. There is also an HO-scale model train.
Trains still run on the rail line just a few feet from the station. I wasn’t lucky enough to experience that, but I imagine it evokes a time when Mechanicsburg was a busy stop on the CVRR.
“You get the real feel of it because you are so close,” said Steven Zimmerman, President of the Mechanicsburg Museum Association. “It is quite loud.”
After spending time at the passenger station, I walked next door to the stationmaster’s house, where Beverly Bone greeted me at the kitchen door. Bone pointed out that this house was built for the original stationmaster, George Zacharias in 1866, a year before the station itself.
Museum volunteer Beverly Bone displays a wool coverlet by local artisan Chares Young. This coverlet was made in 1841. Photo by James F. Lee.
The two-story, three-bedroom home contains 1860s-period furnishings not original to the house that have been acquired primarily by donations. Zacharias lived in the house with his wife Mary, children Frank and Gertrude, and sometime an uncle, Charles, who worked for the railroad
In the kitchen, a large Bright Irving coal stove with elaborate curlicues on the oven door dominates the room. On a table against the wall, bread, butter, eggs, a mixing bowl, and a rolling pin only await a cook to start the next meal.
This chest of drawers is the only piece original to the Stationmaster’s House at the Mechanicsburg Museum. It is believed to have been built by a craftsman in Lancaster. Photo by James F. Lee.
Bone led me to the stationmaster’s office looking out onto the tracks. Here Zacharias could sit at his desk and watch for trains. On the desk are a clock and a telegraph key, so important in the life of a stationmaster. A hat hangs on a wooden peg on the wall.
A parlor contains an ornate wood stove, piano/organ and settee. Upstairs in son Frank’s room, a wool coverlet made by Mechanicsburg weaver Charles Young in 1841 adorns the son’s rope bed.
Perhaps the most interesting piece of furniture is the tall chest of drawers in the master bedroom, the only furnishing original to the house. Each of the six drawers is lockable. Bone said little is known about the chest, although popular belief is that it was built by a craftsman in Lancaster.
In the front hall, black bonnets, derbies, and top hats hang on a hat rack on the wall, just waiting for the family to pick up and put on their heads.
The Pioneer locomotive built in 1851 once hauled passenger cars on the Cumberland Valley Railroad. This rare locomotive is part of the collection of the National Museum of American History, acquired from the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Currently on loan at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. (National Museum of American History photo).
This is one of the last rail stations [from steam days] left in the area, said Bone. And having the original stationmaster’s house is a bonus.
“[They] bring back the essence of that period,” said Bone. “And our slogan is ‘we keep history alive.’”
WHAT ABOUT CVRR TRAINS AND CARS? CVRR rolling stock can be viewed at two locations.The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg has a combination baggage/passenger car on display.Built in 1855, this is one of the oldest surviving passenger cars in the United States. And the National Museum of American History has in its collection the Pioneer locomotive, built in Boston in 1851.The Pioneer was an early-type locomotive designed to haul one or two passenger cars.Its age and design make it a rarity.Currently, the locomotive is on loan at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.
