From May to November 1876 the Grangers’ Centennial Encampment covered much of southside Narberth. It contained the largest building ever constructed in Narberth.

It was “gigantic,” wrote Scientific American. At 5.1 acres, it housed 5,000 guests; its campus included a small city’s worth of services: sleeping, dining, a dairy, an ice-house, a laundry and hospital, a post office, telegraph and train station. The Encampment hosted tens of thousands of rural and working-class guests during the Exhibition.

It was the site of births, deaths, and the internationally-reported “Centennial Murder.” Then seven days after the Centennial closed, it burned to the ground in a spectacular blaze visible throughout Philadelphia, a total loss.

When five years later the railroad suburb of Narberth came under development, the newcomers, mostly city ex-pats, had no idea of what had stood before in their new neighborhood. But archaeological evidence and contemporary accounts make it clear that the Encampment, the fire, the murder, brought the area more global attention than ever before, or since.

For a fuller account, with images, maps and sources, please visit https://NarberthHistory.org/stories/elm-stations-lost-city.