HISTORIC DESIGNATION
Museum named to National Register of Historic Places Building was former Lehigh Valley Transit Trolley station
PERKASIE >> The Perkasie Historical Society Museum has been named to the National Register of Historic Places.
Located at 513 W. Walnut Street, the former Lehigh Valley Transit Trolley station was one of the properties chosen for the national registry by the National Park System’s selection committee.
The process began more than 25 years ago when Donald Lederach, then Perkasie’s Community and Economic Development Director and later vice president of the Perkasie Historical Society, successfully completed the initial Resource Survey, leading the National Registry to grant eligibility status in 1998. An additional nomination form was submitted by Scott Bomboy, now a Perkasie Borough councilman, in 2016.
In 2018, Louise Doll, vice president of the Perkasie Historical Society, submitted an Addendum Application with supportive documents and related information needed to move the application into the nomination and approval process. Then, in June 2022, the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Board approved the nomination of the trolley station and recommended progression to the National Registry. Finally, on March 14, 2023, the Perkasie Historical Society received formal notification of the inclusion into the National Register of Historic Places.
Other National Registry designations in Perkasie are the 1832 South Perkasie Covered Bridge in Lenape Park and Perkasie Park on S. Ninth Street, which was selected in 2017.
The Lehigh Valley Transit Company built the late Victorian, one-story building in 1911 and 1912. Rugh & Lange, a prominent Lehigh Valley architectural firm, designed the station to serve the Liberty Bell trolley line. At the time, the trolley and railroad were in competition for transportation of people and goods to and from Philadelphia and Allentown.
The trolley station closed in 1951. In the following decades, a series of small businesses occupied the building until the Hartzell-Crouthamel American Legion Post 280 acquired it for meetings and social gatherings. In 1991, the Legion donated the building for $1 to the Perkasie Historical Society to use as a local historical museum. In 2011, the museum was renovated to reflect its earlier role as a trolley station.
The society retained the integrity of the building, including the waiting room, ticket areas, windows and porch details. The historical society uses the building for displays and to house the organization’s numerous collections. Rick Doll and Matt Lynch are the museum curators.
For more information, visit perkasiehistory.org.