Coudersport Borough Office and Police Station (Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad Station)

Coudersport Borough Office and Police Station (Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad Station)

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1899. 201 S. West St.

East–west rail access came to Pennsylvania's central counties as early as 1852, but it did not arrive in Coudersport until 1880, leaving the town isolated when the river froze and the roads were blocked with snow or mud. This seasonal inaccessibility provided the impetus to use railroads to haul timber to the main rail lines. Construction of this handsome large red brick station and headquarters in place of the earlier wooden structure was a much-heralded event. The rusticated sandstone foundation is slightly flared at the base to echo the slight pent to the roof extension at both the first and second stories. The central hipped-roof core, five bays in width and two stories in height, is dominated by a central gable and a Palladian window crowned by a bull's-eye window. The building's deep eaves now protect the local police and borough officials, who have occupied the space for offices since 1975. The layout and design are reminiscent of the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh station designed in 1893 by the Rochester, New York, firm of Gordon, Bragdon and Orchard in DuBois, Clearfield County (see DuBois, p. 474).

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