PHOTO BY BECKY THURNER BRADDOCK

The meticulously restored Wilkinsburg Train Station, with lots of natural light, served as a beautiful backdrop for our annual 40 Under 40 photo session.

Photographer Becky Thurner Braddock conducted the September session at the 107-year-old station, which had been abandoned for nearly half a century after Amtrak discontinued service to the Wilkinsburg stop in 1975. The building reopened in September 2021 after a $6.5 million restoration project led by community leaders and the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation, which owns the building. For decades, it had sat rotting and dilapidated, with a massive hole in its roof.

Designed in the Beaux-Arts architectural style, the station now features an intentional skylight in place of the gaping hole, as well as delicately patterned terrazzo and mosaic tile floors, a clock tower and polished stone pilasters and panels; it has 8,400 square feet of leasable space.

“The restoration of the Wilkinsburg Train Station is no longer just a symbol of Wilkinsburg’s past,” Wilkinsburg CDC executive director Tracey Evans said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in 2021. “Today, it’s a symbol of Wilkinsburg’s future.”