Reading Terminal

Architect: Wilson Brothers & Company
Year: 1893
City: Philadelphia, PA

Reading Terminal was built starting in 1889 for the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, which needed a depot, passenger station, and headquarters at 12th and Market Streets to compete with the Pennsylvania Railroad's Broad Street Station and the Baltimore and Ohio's 24th Street Station nearby. Designed by Wilson Brothers & Company and completed in 1893, the complex combines a headhouse, trainshed, and the Reading Terminal Market.

the building

Buying out a market to build one. The chosen site was occupied by an open-air market running since 1853. After complaints and negotiation, the railroad paid $1 million to relocate the vendors into a new structure behind the headhouse: the Reading Terminal Market, still in operation at 12th and Filbert Streets.

significance

Reading Terminal is a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

nearby

Loews Philadelphia Hotel 460 ft · International Style
Robinson Department Store 0.1 mi · Mid-Century Modern · 1946
Wanamaker’s 0.2 mi
Randolph Theatre 0.2 mi · French Renaissance
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Philadelphia 0.2 mi · Gothic Revival · 1823
Masonic Temple 0.2 mi · Norman

All 127 buildings in Philadelphia