It was decided that the former train shed of the Reading Terminal be the site of the new center and after renovations were finished by Wilson Brothers & Company, it opened in 1993.

The opposite end of the grand hall provides a gated entrance into the headhouse lobby for the Marriott Hotel that occupies the old office spaces of Reading Railroad.

The hotel, designed by BLT Architects with completion in 1995, is connected to the Market East Station via a skybridge to the historic Reading Terminal.

The 1,200-room hotel also offers restaurants, a health/fitness center, and various-sized ballrooms and pre-function areas for meetings, convention activities, and other public and private events.

The headhouse, a nine-story office building fronting on Market Street, that contained the passenger station and the Reading Railroad company headquarters.

When Reading Company ceased to exist as a railroad owner and operator, it sold the headhouse and train shed to SEPTA, the regional transit service.

[3] On March 3, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Emergency Management Agency opened a mass COVID-19 vaccination site at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

[4] On June 4, 2023, as part of FanExpo Philadelphia, the Convention Center hosted a Back to the Future reunion panel with Michael J.