Delta Place Station - The I.O.O.F. Orphanage Train Station

 Roughly across from the Sheetz in Lewisburg is "Delta Place Station" -
Originally the I.O.O.F Train Station, from Sunbury Pa.

So why is it in Lewisburg? And why is it called Delta Place Station?

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AT THE ORPHANAGE

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Bright Station, at the Orphanage in Sunbury

When the orphanage was first built, one of the selling points for the chosen location was its proximity to the railroad

  The original  stop, Bright Station,  had been  about a quarter of a mile  east of the later built "Orphanage" station.

The Station at the Orphanage in Sunbury 

In 1898 the orphanage sold a piece of ground 60 feet by 176 feet to the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

 A station was erected there, and named Orphanage.

 Both children, and visitors, would arrive at the orphanage by train, and as such, the back of the building, which faced the railroad, was the front, in the early years.

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MOVED TO LEWISBURG
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In the late 1980s, the Orphanage Train station was moved to Lewisburg, along route 15, Delta Place Station.

In the 1980's, Youth Challenge had taken over the IOOF building. In the late 1980s, a new excursion railroad was being opened in Lewisburg. Youth Challenge donated the station to be used with the Excursions [so I am told].

1989

The station was used by the Lewisburg and Buffalo Creek Tourist Railroad for excursions from Lewisburg to Winfield in the 1980's & 90s.. It used "an SW1 and ex-PRR GP30". [I copied that last part - it means nothing to me]

By the end of 1997 the line, excursions had ceased and the passenger cars were sold to a private buyer.

In 2025, the station was for sale

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PHOTOS FROM THE SALE LISTING

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DELTA PLACE

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The land the station sits on is part of the original "Delta Tract", which included the land where the Slifer house stands today, as well as all of the borough of Lewisburg.

Delta was the name of the 1,150 acre original land purchase that became Lewisburg. In the book Delta Place by Doris Hartley Reed [Published in 1975 in an effort to save the Slifer House] Reed described the original Delta Place Tract of land. Granted by the Penns to Rev. John Ewing of Philadelphia, the certificate of title is written on sheepskin, and was given to the Evangelical Home by W.C. Walls of Lewisburg sometime before 1926. The land contained 1,150 acres, located in [at the time] Berks County, at the angle were Buffalo Creek flows into the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. It was called "Delta" apparently from it's location, and it's resemblance to the Greek letter.

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READ MORE
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More about the I.O.O.F. Orphanage in Sunbury

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-ioof-orphanage-in-sunbury-pa.html