Many thanks to everyone who shared and commented on last week's post! I'm sure the good folks at the Liberty Bell Museum will be grateful that so many people have taken an interest in the museum's precarious situation, and I truly hope that we can make a difference.
Just a quick reminder that it's the first of the month, which means the newsletter has gone out with links to all of the February posts. To read it online, click here - and please do consider subscribing, it's free and sometimes there is exclusive content.
For today's post, I'm introducing the first new county of 2023. This past Saturday, Kevin and I made our way to Mechanicsburg for a meeting of our beloved Sherlock Holmes club, the White Rose Irregulars. After the meeting, we amused ourselves with running around the community collecting markers, and managed to get almost all of them. As a reward for his help, I treated him to some incredible homemade ice cream at Urban Churn Creamery. (I had the honey lemon lavender, and all I can say is that it's a good thing this place isn't closer to our house, because I'd go bankrupt.) This was the first of the seven markers we got that day, and we were a little chagrined that we were about twenty minutes too late to go inside the building in question.
 |
| The marker is in front of the former CVRR passenger station at 2 West Strawberry Alley |
The Cumberland Valley Railroad was not begun in Mechanicsburg, but the marker is here because the community is home to some of the best preserved buildings related to the CVRR - indeed, possibly the best preserved. The railroad was incorporated in 1831, and headquartered in Chambersburg, in Franklin County. Its original purpose was to provide both freight and passenger service between the Chambersburg area and Harrisburg; as need grew, it was extended, eventually reaching down through Maryland and into West Virginia.
The line reached its completion in 1837, at which point Mechanicsburg was still rather small. It became more significant thanks to the railroad, which designated it as one of their water stations - a place where the rail workers could acquire water and firewood for the engines. The community grew as the railroad did, with trains bringing various goods into the area and making growth possible.
The CVRR was a bit of a trailblazer, offering the very first passenger sleeping car on a train in the United States. The railroad became part of the most popular way to travel from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh; travelers would board the train from Philly to Chambersburg, during which they could make use of the sleeper car if so desired, and then from Chambersburg the rest of the trip was taken via stagecoach. This gave passengers a bit of an adventure until the 1850s, when the Pennsylvania Railroad was able to reach Pittsburgh. The more direct line was faster and rendered the stagecoach method obsolete.
The CVRR had something of a slow start, something that was made worse by a fire in 1844; a spark from one of their trains ignited the bridge to Harrisburg and nearly bankrupted the company. In 1859, controlling interest in the CVRR was acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad, though they kept their name and existing staff. Two years later, the Civil War broke out, and the young railroad became much more important as a means of transporting Union soldiers and supplies for the Army of the Potomac. General Jubal Early and his Confederate troops marched into Chambersburg on July 30, 1864, and when the community failed to raise the exorbitant ransom he demanded, he and his men burned many of the buildings, which naturally had an impact on the CVRR and its employees. Despite this and any other setbacks, however, the CVRR's fortunes improved, and they came out of the war in a better financial position than they had been when it started.
With the new century, the CVRR and the Pennsylvania Railroad became more integrated. By 1919, the PRR shifted from merely owning controlling interest to owning the CVRR outright, and the name was changed to the Cumberland Valley Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Passenger service continued until 1959, and rail facilities in Chambersburg were closed in 1972. In the 1990s a plan was drafted to use the old Cumberland Valley Railroad Bridge as part of commuter rail service between Harrisburg and Carlisle, but the entire project was eventually scrapped.
Sources and Further Reading:
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I would love to hear from you!