They’re not serving up coffee and tea yet – more like bricks and mortar – but the fabled train station restaurant in Tamaqua will be saved.

Work could start there by the end of this month, said SOS President Kenneth Smulligan.

On the brink of collapse, the historic restaurant and kitchen at the rear of Tamaqua’s 1874 Philadelphia & Reading Railroad’s passenger station came very close to self-destruction. Damage from weather, fire and vandals severely weakened the walls.

It will now be renovated under a $220,000 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act grant announced by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.