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69th Street Terminal - then and now; Before and after the renovation
Topic Started: Dec 5 2009, 08:56 PM (2,434 Views)
bjbear71
Occasional Rider
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I’ve been thinking about this for about the past week and wanted to put my thoughts down on paper, so here they are.

If you grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs the way I did, 69th Street Terminal was your hub to everywhere. My memories of the old Terminal (pre-renovation) are still pretty vivid in my mind, though I cannot recall all the shops and establishments within the Terminal itself. Here’s what I can remember about the Terminal:

It was a very interesting place to be, but a tad scary for a young person like myself. The reason for the scariness is that I recall the main part of the Terminal (where the SEPTA customer service windows are now, and the benches in the middle) was VERY dark, with little lighting. Never found out the reason for this. It’s like it was pitch dark in the middle of the day when you were there!! Where those benches are in the middle of the Terminal was a GIANT newsstand, huge. They had everything. I always wanted my father to buy me a MAD magazine from there, but he never did.

You got to the EL/Market-Frankford Line a slightly different way than you do now due to the renovation, but I also remember that the Transfer machines (located before the EL turnstiles) there were free, and all you had to do was press the button and out popped a free paper transfer. Later on they were a nickel, but they remained free for many years. You could literally stand there and take as many as you wanted!

Looking around the rest of that main section of the Terminal, that “upstairs” part (which I assume are transit offices and such) was still there, with that small bal and railing. I always wanted to go up there.

Here is what else I remember about the old Terminal:

--It had a Girard Bank (then called “Girard Corn Exchange Bank”)
--It had a Hanscom’s Bakery shop (which made the best frosted cupcakes in the area!). Later, this corner shop became a Horn and Hardart’s takeout shop
--It had an Orange Julius
--It had a bookstore (where I purchased a paperback book of The Beatles way back when)

This is where my mind goes blank. There were LOTS of other establishments in the Terminal, but I can’t recall them.

The part of the Terminal (on the outside) where you boarded the Red Arrow buses and the trolleys has really changed very little since then, except for coats of paint and digital signs (that don’t always work). The part of the South Terminal where you boarded the buses for the city (PTC buses back then) has undergone some changes, but is basically recognizable from what it was in years past. They built an overhead walkway with the big blue letters “69th Street” which crosses over a very busy Market Street. Most of the renovation of the Terminal itself took place on the inside. Where all those shops and eating places use to be, there are now tiled walls leading to the bus berths. There’s now a Transit Police office visible on the way to these berths that I don’t recall from the 1960s. There are also restrooms, which, unfortunately, most of the time are way too scary to use. Something needs to be done about this, really...

I noticed this evening that there is a nice historical overview and cool photos of what the Terminal looked like then and now, along the inside walls of the main terminal. I saw lots of photos I recognized immediately from the old days and apparently this was part of a celebration of the Terminal that was posted in 2007. It proclaims the Terminal to be 100 years old in 2007 as well. I always walked by all this and tonight actually took a few minutes to study the photos and read the captions to see what they said.

I welcome anyone to add to this, what your memories are of this Terminal - and especially to add what I left out and/or forgot!
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philabob1
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bjbear71
Dec 5 2009, 08:56 PM
I’ve been thinking about this for about the past week and wanted to put my thoughts down on paper, so here they are.

If you grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs the way I did, 69th Street Terminal was your hub to everywhere. My memories of the old Terminal (pre-renovation) are still pretty vivid in my mind, though I cannot recall all the shops and establishments within the Terminal itself. Here’s what I can remember about the Terminal:

It was a very interesting place to be, but a tad scary for a young person like myself. The reason for the scariness is that I recall the main part of the Terminal (where the SEPTA customer service windows are now, and the benches in the middle) was VERY dark, with little lighting. Never found out the reason for this. It’s like it was pitch dark in the middle of the day when you were there!! Where those benches are in the middle of the Terminal was a GIANT newsstand, huge. They had everything. I always wanted my father to buy me a MAD magazine from there, but he never did.

You got to the EL/Market-Frankford Line a slightly different way than you do now due to the renovation, but I also remember that the Transfer machines (located before the EL turnstiles) there were free, and all you had to do was press the button and out popped a free paper transfer. Later on they were a nickel, but they remained free for many years. You could literally stand there and take as many as you wanted!

Looking around the rest of that main section of the Terminal, that “upstairs” part (which I assume are transit offices and such) was still there, with that small bal and railing. I always wanted to go up there.

Here is what else I remember about the old Terminal:

--It had a Girard Bank (then called “Girard Corn Exchange Bank”)
--It had a Hanscom’s Bakery shop (which made the best frosted cupcakes in the area!). Later, this corner shop became a Horn and Hardart’s takeout shop
--It had an Orange Julius
--It had a bookstore (where I purchased a paperback book of The Beatles way back when)

This is where my mind goes blank. There were LOTS of other establishments in the Terminal, but I can’t recall them.

The part of the Terminal (on the outside) where you boarded the Red Arrow buses and the trolleys has really changed very little since then, except for coats of paint and digital signs (that don’t always work). The part of the South Terminal where you boarded the buses for the city (PTC buses back then) has undergone some changes, but is basically recognizable from what it was in years past. They built an overhead walkway with the big blue letters “69th Street” which crosses over a very busy Market Street. Most of the renovation of the Terminal itself took place on the inside. Where all those shops and eating places use to be, there are now tiled walls leading to the bus berths. There’s now a Transit Police office visible on the way to these berths that I don’t recall from the 1960s. There are also restrooms, which, unfortunately, most of the time are way too scary to use. Something needs to be done about this, really...

I noticed this evening that there is a nice historical overview and cool photos of what the Terminal looked like then and now, along the inside walls of the main terminal. I saw lots of photos I recognized immediately from the old days and apparently this was part of a celebration of the Terminal that was posted in 2007. It proclaims the Terminal to be 100 years old in 2007 as well. I always walked by all this and tonight actually took a few minutes to study the photos and read the captions to see what they said.

I welcome anyone to add to this, what your memories are of this Terminal - and especially to add what I left out and/or forgot!
I didn't spend much time there but one memory is the pretzel place that baked them on site. It was hard to avoid the aroma of fresh-baked pretzels.

I also thought it was interesting that it was the only subway/el stop I can recall where there were no rotogates or turnstiles that you had to go through on the exit platform. It always seemed that someone could merely sneak down there and board a train other than the conductor would catch them (and in the crowds I experienced there it seemed that a fare evader could easily do this). Of course such evader would chance that the train might be going to the yards instead of around the loop and back eastbound.
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TransitChuckG
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I remember the Hanscom's quite well. The best cakes ever!
Edited by TransitChuckG, Dec 6 2009, 07:47 PM.
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TransitChuckG
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There is a marvelous book called " Market St. Elevated Passenger Railway" by Joel Spivak.
It has some great pictures of the old 69th st.
Edited by TransitChuckG, Dec 6 2009, 08:07 PM.
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