Visualize October 1914...
Kansas City Union Station
September 26, 2015
Built in 1914, Union Station opens her arms with 850,000 square feet of amazing space that originally featured 900 rooms. In her prime as a working train station, she accommodated hundreds of thousands of passengers each year. During WWII, an estimated one million travelers – many of them soldiers -- passed through the Station. The North Waiting Room (now Sprint Festival Plaza) held 10,000 people and the complex included restaurants, a cigar store, barber shop, railroad offices, the nation's largest Railway Express Building (used for shipping freight and mail) as well as a powerhouse providing steam and power. So many stories of farewells, reunions and of day-to-day vibrancy still echo in her walls. Just listen . . .
Closed in the 1980s, our Station sat empty and neglected, narrowly escaping demolition on several occasions. Then, in 1996, a historic bi-state initiative was passed to fund the Station's renovation, which was completed in grand fashion in 1999.
Union Station is once again a majestic and desired destination for our surrounding communities. She is at once, magical, warm, casual, elegant, full of surprises and wise from experience but young at heart.
credit - www.unionstation.org/about
Visualize October 1914...
Kansas City Union Station
September 26, 2015
Built in 1914, Union Station opens her arms with 850,000 square feet of amazing space that originally featured 900 rooms. In her prime as a working train station, she accommodated hundreds of thousands of passengers each year. During WWII, an estimated one million travelers – many of them soldiers -- passed through the Station. The North Waiting Room (now Sprint Festival Plaza) held 10,000 people and the complex included restaurants, a cigar store, barber shop, railroad offices, the nation's largest Railway Express Building (used for shipping freight and mail) as well as a powerhouse providing steam and power. So many stories of farewells, reunions and of day-to-day vibrancy still echo in her walls. Just listen . . .
Closed in the 1980s, our Station sat empty and neglected, narrowly escaping demolition on several occasions. Then, in 1996, a historic bi-state initiative was passed to fund the Station's renovation, which was completed in grand fashion in 1999.
Union Station is once again a majestic and desired destination for our surrounding communities. She is at once, magical, warm, casual, elegant, full of surprises and wise from experience but young at heart.
credit - www.unionstation.org/about