Preserving the History of Ambler, Whitpain and Lower Gwynedd
WVHS needs your help to Save the Freight House, one of three pre-Civil War buildings in the borough!
Once upon a time in the Village of Wissahickon, lived a family named Ambler. Mary and her husband Andrew had seven sons and one daughter. They moved here in 1832. The railroad came to town in 1855 and a small passenger station was built. One year later a terrible accident happened and Mary Ambler walked three miles from her home to assist during the aftermath of “The Great Train Wreck of 1856”. Because of her heroic deeds, the Wissahickon station and later the town were renamed Ambler.
This train station building was moved across Butler Avenue and became the freight house in 1879. Now it’s on the move again because the culvert it straddles is crumbling. Given a tight time frame to remove the building from SEPTA property, a handful of local residents are raising funds to save it by having it disassembled, numbered and stored until a suitable new home and new use in Ambler can be identified. We need your help. You can donate by credit card, PayPal or scan the Venmo QR code with your app. You may also make a donation by check to: P.O. Box 96, Ambler, PA 19002.
We thank you, and Mary thanks you too!
You can find us on Venmo at @WissahickonValleyHistorical