37th Street (SEPTA station)

37th Street
SEPTA tram station
Entrance to the 37th and Spruce SEPTA station
Location	37th and Spruce Streets University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
Owned by	SEPTA
Line(s)
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Construction
Structure type	Underground
Electrified	Overhead lines
Services
Preceding station   SEPTA   Following station 40th Street toward Darby Subway–Surface Trolleys Route 11 Sansom Commons/36th Street toward 13th Street Subway–Surface Trolleys Route 13 40th Street toward Angora Loop Subway–Surface Trolleys Route 34 40th Street toward Eastwick Loop Subway–Surface Trolleys Route 36

37th Street/Spruce Street/Woodland Avenue is a SEPTA Subway-Surface Lines trolley station. It is the last station in the tunnel before the 40th Street Subway Portal and carries Subway-Surface Trolley Routes 11, 13, 34, & 36. The entrance to go down into the eastbound side of the station is on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania and the entrance to go down into the westbound side of the station is on Spruce Street. The two stations are off set and are not on the same length of the track. Trolleys serving this station go eastbound to Center City Philadelphia and Westbound to the Philadelphia neighborhoods of Eastwick and Angora and the Delaware County suburbs of Yeadon and Darby. The reason why the station platforms are off set is because during construction of the subway station the above intersection was Spruce & 37th Streets at Woodland Avenue with all three streets crossing at a five points intersection. Upon entering the subway, 37th Street's westbound platform is passed first, the exit/entrance was built on the north side of Spruce Street, and the eastbound couldn't be on Spruce Street because it would have placed the subway exiting stairs in the middle of Spruce Street, so the eastbound platform exit/entrance was placed on the far side of Woodland Avenue (now Woodland Walk).

In October 2006, Penn's class of 1956 donated a new entrance for the Eastbound entrance of the station. The entrance is a replica of the Peter Witt trolleys (manufactured by J. G. Brill Company from 1923–26 for Philadelphia) that served the university students prior to 1956. The trolleys brought commuting students to the campus as well as to Center City. The trolleys were operated by the Philadelphia Transportation Company and Routes 11, 34 and 37 ran through the Penn campus on Woodland Avenue and Locust Streets for nearly 65 years. In 1956, the trolley route was buried to enable the university to unify its campus. Woodland Avenue and Locust Street became pedestrian walkways. The 2006-built replica was made by the Gomaco Trolley Company.

External links

• SEPTA 37th Street-Spruce SSL Station
• 37th Street Station images (WorldNYCSubway.org)
• Spruce Street and 37th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View

College Hall (and Logan Hall) viewed from Woodland Ave., ca. 1892.