When I interviewed Albert Jerdan for the Local in 2010 about living in the Gravers Lane train station for much of his life, I told him he should contact the Guinness Book of World Records.
I could not believe that anyone else on earth had lived for so long — 83 years — in a train station. He said I was not the first person to make that suggestion but he was not computer savvy, enjoyed his relative solitude, and said the last thing on earth he wanted was to draw media attention.
Jerdan died on May 31 of age-related ailments at age 96. He moved out of the station to Doylestown in 2015. “I know people think this is strange,” Jerdan said of his home at the station, “but it suits me. I am not an extrovert, but I am really a very normal person. I'm a big fan of the Phillies and Eagles; I like to go to the Jersey shore and play cards and golf.”
Born in 1929 at the start of the Great Depression, Jerdan moved to the station with his family when he was 3. The Jerdans — parents Wilfred and Ella, and their six children (Lin, Walter, Russ, Ada, Bill and Albert) — moved from Wyncote to the train station. Albert's father, a brakeman for the Reading Railroad Company, rented the station’s living quarters. Even many years after they moved in, there was still no heat in the kitchen. "You get used to it," Jerdan explained.
According to the National Register of Historic Places, the Gravers Lane Train Station was built in or near 1879, years after the beginning of rail service to Chestnut Hill, east of Germantown Avenue. The station represented the efforts of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad to compete with the Pennsylvania Railroad's proposed line to the western part of Chestnut Hill, which would open in or aroundt 1884.
The house and train station were designed by legendary Victorian era architect Frank Furness (1839–1912). Among his most important surviving buildings are the University of Pennsylvania Library, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. Gravers Station is considered by some experts to be one of Furness' finest. The building consists of a one-story ticket office with a passenger waiting room, and the two-story residence that was home to Jerdan's family.
The station was restored in 1982 through the efforts of the Chestnut Hill Historical Society (now the Conservancy). Jerdan said SEPTA, which owns the property, ultimately offered him a deal he could not refuse: In return for a very reasonable rent, he could remain as long as he maintained upkeep on the property, cut the grass, washed away the occasional graffiti and cared for a backyard that contained rose bushes, tiger lilies, and other plantings.
Over the years, Jerdan said he began to have problems with people disrespecting the property, particularly children and teenagers walking along the train tracks. "The younger generation today is not like when we were young," he told me. "They talk back to you when I am trying to get them off the tracks. I also pick up the trash that a lot of adults leave."
Jerdan said that since so many people think the station building is a ticket office and not a private residence, they try to get inside. “You just get used to it,” he said. "In fact, I've even had people set up a picnic in the backyard. I let them stay as long as they clean up afterwards and are not too loud."
As a child, Jerdan attended Jenks Elementary School, then Dobbins Area Vocational High School in North Philadelphia, where he learned to be a radio technician, a job he held for 30 years at Leeds, an electronic outfit in North Wales. "I was a job instructor. I taught people how to run machines,” he said.
When Jerdan was a child, there was a farm across the street with orchards, chickens, and cows. He said the farmers used to bring eggs to his parents. "And there was Caruso's property down the street. That was the family that owned the market (currently Weavers Way) for about 100 years.”
In 1952, Jerdan married Constance “Connie” Carels. They were happily married for 59 years until she died in 2011. He is survived by his children Stephen, Wayne (Jamie), and Charlene Gumkowski (David), three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. In addition to his late wife and parents, Albert was predeceased by his daughter Holly Lind; brothers Russell (Irene), Walter (Laura), Linnaeus (Marion), Wilfred (Betty), and his sister, Ada Morrison (William).
In lieu of flowers, mourners are urged to contribute to a charity of their choice.
Len Lear can be reached at LenLear@chestnuthilllocal.com.
