Hanover Junction was a transportation hub where the Northern Central Railway met the Hanover Branch Railroad, which ran west to Hanover and Gettysburg. Linked in 1852, the two lines were intended to carry the region's agricultural products and iron ore from local mines to markets along the East Coast. During the Civil War, thousands of soldiers wounded at Gettysburg were processed there and sent to hospitals in York and Baltimore. In its heyday, the station, built in 1852, included a telegraph office, hotel rooms, and living quarters for the stationmaster and his family. The railroad sold the building to a private owner in 1929, and by the 1970s it had become a shell of its former self. The station was purchased and transferred to York County in 1977, received extensive renovations from 1999 to 2001, and reopened on November 18, 2001, the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's historic stop there on his way to deliver the Gettysburg Address.

Photo: Larry Gertner

Photo: William Pfingsten

Photo: William Pfingsten

Photo: Courtesy United States Archives - 1863 Hanover Junction

Photo: Craig Swain

Photo: William Pfingsten