On a morning in June, I went out painting at dawn and was drawn to the A & A Food warehouse near Broad Street and Washington Avenue. This rundown former train station was at one time was part of a series of beautiful buildings designed to support industry in South Philadelphia. I don't know for certain which architect designed the structure, but I think it likely that Frank Furness (or someone working with him) designed the building. It has the medievalist Victorian style for which Furness became well known.

This train station served Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore freight trains and passenger lines. At the time of the Civil War it was called the Broad & Prime Street Station. The station was used to send thousands of troops off to the Antietam battlefield. Due to the heavy use as a Civil War military transport, a hospital for wounded soldiers was set up across Broad Street.

The funeral trains of both Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist John Brown made stops here.