LANSFORD, Pa. — This is just one of the few remaining train stations built by the Lehigh and New England Railroad, and it's here in Lansford.
A bittersweet ceremony took place for the owners of Hill's Machine Shop, who have been preserving the freight station's history while running their business for almost 40 years.
They are now selling it to Lansford borough to keep its rich history alive.
"It will be wonderful to see a new beginning for the freight station and a new beginning for us too," Jeanie and Ken Hill, said Hill's Machine Shop former owners.
This freight station is over a hundred years old and used to be connected to different coal mines across Pennsylvania.
The borough couldn't let a building with so much history fall to the wayside after the Hill's retirement.
"And it's just disappearing so quickly today; the historic buildings are being torn down, the buildings that should have been saved aren't being saved, so we're gonna try to do our best to save this building," Bruce Markarvich, the Landsford Council President said.
While they want to preserve the historic look on the outside, the Lansford council reached out to students at the Carbon County Technology Institute to help transform the inside into a multi-recreational center.
"They wanted us to implement things and bring ideas about what we would want and why we would want to come here as teenagers. So we want to implement stuff that the younger crowd would like as well as the adults," said Nicole Corina, a Drafting and Design Technology CCTI Student.
The students came up with these renderings in two weeks, which include a small business incubator, restaurant, outdoor stage, and more, making it an ideal venue to entertain all ages while supporting the local economy.
"People on our team are from here, and they've said the business district has really gone downhill, so I feel like this will really elevate it and bring tourism back to Lansford," Corina said.
After today's official turnover, organizations in this area on this project plan to come together to plan the next steps to restore the building to its original appearance.
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