# Head house

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Head_house
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Head_house.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_house
> Source revision: 1335137001
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|Type of building}}
{{For|individual historic buildings known as "Head House"|Head House (disambiguation)}}
[[File:New_Terminal_Depot_at_Philadelphia_LOC_01533v.jpg|thumb|350px|right|The [Reading Terminal](/source/Reading_Terminal) in [Philadelphia](/source/Philadelphia), showing a nine-story brick head house to the right and arched train shed (with market below) to the left.]]

A '''head house''' or '''headhouse''' is an enclosed building attached to an open-sided shed, including the piers extending into a waterway, or the aboveground part of a train or subway station.

==Markets==
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, head houses were often civic buildings such as [town halls](/source/town_halls) or [courthouses](/source/courthouses) located at the end of an open market shed; one example is the [former market and firehouse](/source/New_Market_and_Head_House) from which Philadelphia's [Head House Square](/source/Head_House_Square) takes its name.
[[File:Chelsea Piers.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|New York's [Chelsea Piers](/source/Chelsea_Piers) complex, showing the shore-side head house running perpendicular to, and connecting, Piers 62 to 59 (from left to right), which extend into the [Hudson River](/source/Hudson_River).]]

==Mines==
In [mining](/source/mining), a headhouse is the housing of the headworks of various types of machinery used for moving coal to the surface, or men to or from it.

==Transportation==
===Railroads===
{{see also|Station building}}
[[File:Siuntion rautatieasema 2011-09-28.jpg|thumb|A [station building](/source/station_building) of [Siuntio railway station](/source/Siuntio_railway_station) in [Siuntio, Finland](/source/Siuntio)]]
Since the mid-19th century, in the United States, a head house has often been the part of a passenger [train station](/source/train_station) that does not house the tracks and platforms. Elsewhere, the same part of a station is known as the [station building](/source/station_building).

In particular, it often contains the ticket counters, [waiting room](/source/waiting_room)s, toilets and baggage facilities. It might also include the passenger concourses and walkways between the platforms and other facilities. The head house at Philadelphia's [Reading Terminal](/source/Reading_Terminal), which fronts a two level shed with tracks and platforms placed above a covered market, combined both the older and newer meanings of the word.

Larger terminals had amenities that were contained within their own distinct building, which was separate from the railroad. For instance, when [Cincinnati Union Terminal](/source/Cincinnati_Union_Terminal) opened in 1933, the head house held a restaurant, lunch room, ice cream shop, news agent, drug store, small movie theater, men's and women's lounges, and restrooms that included changing rooms and showers.<ref>"Cincinnati's New Union Terminal", ''Railway Age'', Vol. 94, No. 16, April 22, 1938 (available as a reprint—''The Cincinnati Union Terminal''—from the [http://www.cincinnatirrclub.org/ Cincinnati Railroad Club] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514094543/http://cincinnatirrclub.org/ |date=2008-05-14 }})</ref>

===Subways===
[[Image:Bowling Green station 1.jpg|thumb|right|The head house to [Bowling Green subway station](/source/Bowling_Green_(IRT_Lexington_Avenue_Line)) in [New York City](/source/New_York_City)]]
In [subway systems](/source/Rapid_transit), a head house is the part of a subway station that is above ground, which contain escalators, elevators and ticket agents.

On the [New York City Subway](/source/New_York_City_Subway), a head house is called a "Control House". They were built, and are still used in certain locations (such as at [Broadway and West 72nd Street](/source/72nd_Street_station_(IRT_Broadway%E2%80%93Seventh_Avenue_Line))), where a simple staircase or kiosk was not desirable. During the design and construction of the [city's original subway line](/source/Early_history_of_the_IRT_subway) opened by the [Interborough Rapid Transit Company](/source/Interborough_Rapid_Transit_Company) (IRT) in 1904, control houses were treated as integral architectural features of the system. In 1901, [William Barclay Parsons](/source/William_Barclay_Parsons), chief engineer for the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners, had traveled to [Boston](/source/Boston) with architect [Christopher LaFarge](/source/Heins_%26_LaFarge), where he was apparently inspired by the ornamental houses he saw used as entrances to the [Tremont Street subway](/source/Tremont_Street_subway).<ref>{{cite web|last=Framberger|first=David J.|title=Architectural Designs For New York's First Subway|url=http://www.nycsubway.org/articles/haer-design-architectural.html|work=Survey Number HAER NY-122, pp. 365-412|publisher=National Park Service Department of the Interior Washington, DC. 20240|access-date=26 December 2010|archive-date=26 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101126205448/http://nycsubway.org/articles/haer-design-architectural.html|url-status=live}}</ref>  In response, architects [Heins & LaFarge](/source/Heins_%26_LaFarge) designed each IRT control house to be an attractive exterior feature of the transit network system that was in keeping with its location. The buildings, which are examples of the [Beaux-Arts](/source/Beaux-Arts_architecture) style, are similar to other ground-level structures on the IRT, such as the [powerhouses](/source/IRT_Powerhouse) and sub-stations.

==See also==
* Baltimore's former [President Street Station](/source/President_Street_Station), now the Baltimore Civil War Museum
* former [Chicago and North Western Terminal](/source/Chicago_Northwestern_Station)
* former [Grand Central Depot](/source/Grand_Central_Depot) in New York City
* [Howrah Junction railway station](/source/Howrah_Junction_railway_station) in India
* [Reading Terminal](/source/Reading_Terminal) in Philadelphia
* [Chicago Union Station](/source/Chicago_Union_Station)
* [St. Louis Union Station](/source/St._Louis_Union_Station)
* [Washington Union Station](/source/Washington_Union_Station)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Rail tracks}}

Category:Railway stations

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Head house](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_house) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_house?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.