Lehighton station

Lehighton
Lehighton station in the early 1900s
General information
Line(s)	Lehigh Valley main line
History
Opened	1855 (1855)
Closed	February 8, 1961 (1961-02-08)
Former lines
Preceding station Lehigh Valley Railroad Following station Jim Thorpe toward Buffalo Main Line Slatington toward New York or Jersey City Packerton toward Buffalo Lizard Creek Junction toward New York or Jersey City

Lehighton station was a Lehigh Valley Railroad station that was located in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, USA. It was part of the Lehigh Valley main line, and was also the eastern terminus for Hazleton Branch passenger trains, although the branch diverged at Penn Haven Junction, north of Jim Thorpe.

Lehigh Valley service to Lehighton began in 1855. The company began service between Allentown and Easton on June 11, 1855; the line was completed to Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe) on September 12.^[1] As was common for that era, it used a locally constructed building.^[2]

The company completed more permanent passenger and freight houses in 1863.^[3] The Lehigh Valley's was one of two depots in Lehighton: the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, later the Central Railroad of New Jersey, had its own depot some 600 yards (550 m) away.^[4] Both were located on the west bank of the Lehigh River.^[5]

The Lehigh Valley erected new buildings in Lehighton in 1913.^[6]

Passenger service to Lehighton outlasted most of the Lehigh Valley by four days. Main line service ended on February 4, 1961 with the discontinuing of the Maple Leaf and the John Wilkes, but service on the Hazleton Branch persisted until February 8.^[7]

The empty station was demolished in June 1972.^[8] Numerous pigeons, the only remaining denizens, reportedly harassed local businesses the following month in search of a new home.^[9]

• Manufacturing and Mercantile Resources of the Lehigh Valley, Including Historical Sketches of the Prominent Towns. Industrial Publishing Company. 1881.
• Archer, Robert F. (1977). The History of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Berkeley: Howell-North Books. ISBN 978-0-8310-7113-4.
• Sayre, Robert H. (1899). Lehigh Valley railroad co. Preliminary report upon the location of the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna railroad (now Lehigh Valley R.R.) August, 1852. Annual reports of superintendent and engineer, 1855 to 1863, from manuscript reports of Robert H. Sayre.