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Event:  Union Station Completed
Brief Description:  The formation of the Terminal Railroad Association in 1889, which consolidated all the train lines in the city, initiated the plans for a new Union Station. The new station was to be located behind the Municipal Courts Building at 18th and Market, despite downtown merchants´ objections to the location, as it was considerably west of the central business district. The station, designed by Theodore Link in 1891 and completed in 1894, was one of the largest and most lavish stations completed in the 19th century. The main building of the station was 606 feet long and 80 feet deep. It had three pavillions, the East Pavillion, which held the clock tower, the Central Pavillion, and the Western Pavillion, where the Terminal Hotel was located. The Grand Hall on the second floor contained ornamental plaster mouldings, sculptures, frescoes, elaborate light fixtures, and art glass. Behind the terminal was a large open-air train shed, where 22 railroads converged. The cost of the station was $6.5 milllion. Its opening was an invitation-only reception on September 1, 1894 that drew 20,000 people. The 10-acre train shed handled around 1,000 passenger cars each day. Union Station became the main gateway to the city. All rail travelers arriving from the east or west changed trains there. Rail travel declined after World War II, and the last train left Union Station in 1978. In the 1980s the building underwent an adaptive reuse as a mall, hotel and entertainment complex. Today, the renovated station is one of the City´s major tourist attractions.
Year:  1894
Decade:  1890 - 1899
Beginning Date:    1891
Ending Date:    1894

People
Link, Theodore


Structures
Union Station

 

 

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