Since 1903, the trolley station — specifically, the northernmost station of the Meadville-Saegertown-Venango-Cambridge trolley line — has stood on the south side of the railroad tracks belonging to the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio (later the Erie) line that runs through the center of the municipality now known as Cambridge Springs. Trolley riders headed north had to walk across the train tracks to reach the station of the Cambridge, Edinboro and Erie trolley line. Even after the two lines consolidated, forming the Western Pennsylvania Railway, passengers still had to walk across the tracks.

Although its heyday was quite brief, “it was a prosperous little trolley line,” Stewart explained. Passenger service started in 1900 and ran through 1925 while trolley freight service continued slightly longer, into 1927 or 1928.

As the years passed, the trolley station served its community as a bus station and then a gas station. After all those years, however, the interior still looks remarkably like it looked back in 1915, when a photograph caught trolley employees in action.

Mary Spicer can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at mspicer@meadvilletribune.com.