Letter: Victorian Christmas at Septa Station

[Editor's Note: The following was written by Malvern resident and organizer Kathleen Brown.]

Hi, Everyone,

I wanted to share this information with you so that you would know where the Christmas lights at the Malvern Train Station came from!  They are on now; check them out tonight.

Years ago, maybe 10 years ago, we bought a pretty evergreen tree through Malvern’s Victorian Christmas and planted it next to the train station.  We decorated it with lights for Christmas so that everyone riding by on the R5 would say “Oh, how, pretty the Malvern train station looks.  Actually John Severance did the majority of the decorating in the beginning.

About 2 years ago, Septa began work at the train station and one day when Jerry and I were down there, I said “Where is our Christmas tree?”  The placement of our tree didn’t fall in with Septa’s plans and they cut it down!  They didn’t know about the history of the tree and felt badly that it happened.  Well, they bought us a new tree and planted it just this past week.  It’s still a young tree but is the type that will grow tall and narrow.

I always wanted the station itself to be decorated so I thought this might be the time to get permission from Septa.  They have a lot of rules and regulations but with their cooperation, we ended up getting their ok to hang white icicle lights around the station house.  We have to take the lights down the first week in January.

Jerry and I are grateful to 3 boys from The Phelps School and their teacher for decorating both the tree and station house.  We’re thankful to Home Depot for donating the tree lights and to ACE Hardware in Frazer for donating the icicle lights. And, of course, we’re very thankful to Septa.

“It Takes a Village”, for sure.

Merry Christmas!

Kathie Brown