Frank Furness Railroad District

The B&O Water Street Station (1888), the Pennsylvania Railroad Office Building (1905), and the Wilmington Train Station (1907), comprise a unique campus of railroad architecture by renowned Philadelphia architect Frank Furness (1839-1912). Frequently commissioned by the nation’s leading railroads, Furness left his creative mark at stations large and small throughout the Northeast, though few survive. Over his half-century career, which was interrupted by service in the Civil War, Furness developed a distinctively American style in which architectural elements were manipulated in proportion and scale in order to dramatize a building’s function and character. Oversized arches, muscular moldings, and bold projecting elements distinguish his works, which were further enlivened by his idiosyncratic ornament that combined organic and geometric motifs. His Wilmington commissions included the former Security Trust and Safe Deposit Co. (1885) at the corner of Sixth and Market Streets, and the B&O Delaware Avenue Passenger Station (1886), demolished in 1960.