Reading and Columbia Railroad and Stations in Lititz, PA.

Lititz PA is home to the most beautifully rebuilt Train Depot I have seen in the US and what a history!

The Reading & Columbia Rail Road started with the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company chartered April 4, 1833 by an Act of the Pennsylvnia Legislature. This is all part of a complex story that began locally in 1857 with generated interest in a railroad between Reading and Columbia. A group of influential citizens from Lancaster andBerks Counties secured passage of a charter creating the Reading & Columbia Rail Road Company, which was signed by Governor James Pollock on May 19, 1857.

Upon the demise of passenger service, the Reading Company no longer required the passenger depot erected on the land leased from the Lititz Moravian Congregation. On August 24, 1953, the 999 year Agreement of Lease was terminated. The last complete passenger train to pass through Lititz was on October 28, 1952, at 11:11 a.m.; a special train carrying presidential candidate Adlai E. Stevenson.The 1863 depot was demolished for the building of the Ideal Cocoa & Chocolate Company factory (now Wilbur Chocolate Company); and the 1884 passenger depot and freight station was demolished in May of 1957 to make way for construction of a modern entrance to Lititz Springs Park through the generosity of Elmer H. Bobst, who provided $100,000. for improvements to the Park.On April 1, 1976, the bankrupt Reading Company ceased being an operating railroad ending 143 years of railroading.The "Golden Era" of the Reading & Columbia Rail Road is gone, but a certain spirit feeling of the "good old days" will continue to linger on in the years to come, especially with the construction and dedication on May 8, 1999 for the replica of the 1884 Lititz Passenger Depot and Express Station on the same northwest corner within Lititz Springs Park.