When Narberth's Pennsylvania Railroad station was built in 1870, it was named "Elm Station", anecodotally after the native elm trees beloved of Welsh settler William Thomas, who sold the railroad the right of way for the tracks, and later the station. The station was renamed in 1892 to match the co-located post office and the development of Narberth Park that had been growing to its north since 1888.
These photographs were shot around the time of the 1895 incorporation of the borough. They can be placed in sequence, if not precisely dated, by comparing their details, especially the presence of one or both of two early signal towers, here standing side by side. The "new" tower is in front, distinguished by its square cap and wider cupola from the "old" tower's conical cap and decorative panel.
Victoria Donohoe described the towers in A Cultural History of Narberth, page 59 (unpublished as of 2026):
The Old Gulph Road (subsequently named Narberth Avenue where it passes through the borough) had a grade crossing at Elm where the Narberth Avenue railroad bridge is today. The grade crossing necessitated the construction of the first of two signal towers that eventually stood side by side at Elm Station until the older one was removed. The purpose of the second tower was to regulate the use of a coal yard cutoff to the north, and it also served the slightly later freight-station cutoff south of the Main Line tracks.
The Reverend Samuel F. Hotchkin published "Railway Station at Narberth" in Rural Pennsylvania in the Vicinity of Philadelphia in 1897. The presence of only the older signal tower, and no rail sidings, indicates that, whatever its date, this is the earliest of all these images.
Early Narberth had two rail "cutoffs", as referred to by Donohoe, on opposite sides of the tracks. A. H. Mueller's 1896 Atlas of Lower Merion shows a siding north of the tracks, absent in Hotchkin's photo. A "plan and survey of the streets now opened and hereinafter to be opened in said Borough of Narberth" dated November 1, 1895 that hangs in Borough Hall shows the station with no sidings. If the sidings are not a deliberate ommission, then this winter photo must be no later than 1895–96. But compare the branches of the tree on the right with the previous and next photos: they look smaller. So… 1894–95?
You could be forgiven for taking this as simply a wider view of the essay's lead image. But it's not: the leaves on the trees that have dropped in this one, which suggests a fall-winter sequence. The reverse cannot ruled out, however, spring and the previous winter. The stone pile and the barrels in front of the new tower look like they haven't been touched, so they must be very close in date.
Here's another winter photo, with major changes: the old tower is gone, and train sidings have appeared on both the left (south) and right (north). The south siding appears in atlases from 1900 to 1926, but not in 1896. This suggests a date no earlier than winter 1896–97.
A wider view from nearly the same perspective reveals Elmwood Ave. and 105 Elmwood Ave. on the left. It's warmer now, and construction materials have been cleaned up from both sides of the tracks.
Looking inbound/east, another winter view… The new signal tower and both sidings are visible. There's a rail car and tracks just visible in front of a horse cart to the right/south. Beyond that is the 1892 Baptist Church of the Evangel and the south side's 1889 water tower.
Several buildings that were absent in the earlier photos have appeared, including the Arcade Building, downtown Narberth's earliest commercial structure, and 222-224 Haverford Avenue. Sections of both are still standing in 2026. This image is examined in Downtown from the tracks.
No early maps show a grade crossing at Narberth Avenue. An 1877 contract for building “a wooden Overhead bridge across "Sullivan's Cut" Philadelphia Division P.R.R. in line of the new road East of Elm Station P.R.R.”, preserved at the Hagley Museum Archives, would seem to refer to the street that would become South Narberth Avenue. Return
Updated July 18, 2026.