The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which was headquartered in Philadelphia, acquired tunnel rights from the Schuylkill River to 15th Street from the city of Philadelphia in return for land that the city needed to construct the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
The Chicago architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, the successor to D.H. Burnham & Company,[REF] designed the structure, originally known as Pennsylvania Station-30th Street in accord with the naming style of other Pennsylvania Stations.