Plan for Annville Station on track

By STEVE JUSTICE, For The Daily News
May, 2000

ANNVILLE, -- When longtime Annville resident Blanche Schaeffer arrived in town many years ago from California, she rolled into the Annville Train Station as a 15-year old passenger on the 5 a.m. milk train..

The train used to stop daily at the station on North Railroad Street delivering the town's supplies and dropping off passengers from around the country.

Although the train doesn't stop in town anymore and the former location on North Railroad Street became a parking lot more than 20 years ago, the Friends of Old Annville plan to restore the station back to its former glory and have it in town by this summer.

Last fall the Friends of Old Annville began searching for the station in hopes of bringing it back to town. Their search took them to New Cumberland, where they found the station intact and serving as a hobby shop and setting for model trains.

After purchasing the station for $7,000 the preservation group secured a future site for the station along the railroad tracks at North Moyer Street.

When the station is successfully returned to Annville, it will serve as headquarters for the Friends of Old Annville and be used to house area archives and hold community meetings, Schaeffer said.

In order lo make all that possible, the Friends of Old Annville have launched a fund raiser trying to raise $50,000 to cover the cost of relocating, restoring and renovating the station.

So far, the organization has raised more than $12,000 for the project, including $7,000 from the fund drive and $5,000.from an art auction at the Allen Theatre.

"Several memorial contributions have been give in honor of parents and grandparents," Schaeffer said. Those contributions will likely be recognized on a plaque placed in the station, she said.

In addition to financial contributions, Schaeffer said, the organization is also searching for artifacts from Annville's past.

"We're digging deep looking for anything anyone might have had," Schaeffer said. So far the organization has received a bench that used to sit at the station and various tools connected to the railroad.

To keep the public aware of the progress of the fund raiser, Annville art instructor Jenny Paulson has painted a sign that sits at the Sunoco gas station at the corner of Route 934 and Route 422.

The signs shows a train running through the old station, with puffs of steam rising slightly above the $10,000 mark. As the money in the organizations coffer increases, Paulson will add additional puffs of steam tracking the progress.

Paulson, who has served as editor of the Friends of Old Annville newsletter, said whenever the organization needs art work she's happy to help.

"This is a worthwhile project to bring something back to Annville," Paulson said. "! enjoy doing it and I hope it's successful."

Reprinted with permission of the Lebanon Daily News.