US Stamps

USPS highlights architectural gems with March 9 Railroad Stations set

Mar 1, 2023, 1 PM
The United States Postal Service highlights architectural gems on a March 9 issue of five Railroad Stations commemorative forever stamps.

By David Hartwig

The United States Postal Service highlights architectural gems on a March 9 issue of five Railroad Stations commemorative forever stamps.

The designs of the nondenominated (63¢) stamps depict Point of Rocks Station in Maryland; Main Street Station in Richmond, Va.; Santa Fe Station in San Bernardino, Calif.; Tamaqua Station in Pennsylvania and Union Terminal in Cincinnati.

With construction dates ranging from 1873 to 1933, the five stations showcase significant contributions to American architecture. Today, each of the five stations is listed on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places.

“Noteworthy railroad stations began brightening the American landscape by the 1870s,” the U.S. Postal Service said, “and, although many fell to the wrecking ball once they had outlived their original purpose, hundreds survived.”

An official first-day ceremony for the Railroad Stations stamps is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Cincinnati Union Terminal, 1301 Western Ave., in Cincinnati.

The ceremony is free and open to the public. Anyone desiring to attend the ceremony is asked to register online with the USPS.

Union Terminal is the most recent station portrayed on the new stamps; construction began in 1928 and ended in 1933. The architecture firm Fellheimer & Wagner designed Union Terminal.

Alfred T. Fellheimer previously served as lead architect for New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. A United States $19.95 Express Mail stamp (Scott 4739) issued in 2013 in the American Landmarks series depicts the interior of Grand Central Terminal.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built Maryland’s Point of Rocks Station in 1873, making it the oldest station in the set. Architect E. Francis Baldwin designed the structure, one of the 500 buildings credited to him during his 50-year career. According to the Baltimore Architecture Foundation, 150 of Baldwin’s buildings remain standing.

Built in 1874 by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, the Tamaqua Station in Pennsylvania follows closely behind the Point of Rocks Station in longevity. The U.S. Department of the Interior added Tamaqua Station to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

The Philadelphia architecture firm of Wilson, Harris and Richards designed the Main Street Station in Richmond, Va., which was built in 1901 by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. The station remains functional today, although it is not the main Amtrak station in Richmond.

The Santa Fe Station in San Bernardino, Calif., began as a two-and-a-half-story wooden structure built in 1886 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. After a fire destroyed the station in 1916, …

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