Union Station

Title

Union Station

Artist

David Neace CPX

Medium

Drawing - Colored Pencil

Description

I took my three drawings of Union Station and combined them into this poster. Colored pencil art drawn from my dad's photos taken in 1946 and from the John C Wyatt Herald-Leader Library.

Built in 1905, Stanford White of New York and Richards, McCarty & Buford of Columbus, Ohio, designed the new terminal. The terminal fronted two hundred twenty-five feet on Main Street and was set back one hundred twenty-five feet. The exterior was built with red and yellow brick, with green and red glass. The lobby was located in the center rotunda (fifty by eighty feet, with a central dome fifty feet high), with a Roman arch ceiling and six oak waiting benches. Off the lobby were the “ladies’ retiring rooms,” which included a dressing room and toilets for the women passengers. In addition, off the lobby were the “men’s smoking rooms,” which included washroom, toilets and smoking room. On the east end of the lobby were the separate “colored waiting rooms,” with a separate entrance.

The second floor was leased to the Lexington & Eastern for its offices. The office entrance was off the Harrison Street Viaduct. The front lawn included a circular drive around a fountain, with flowerbeds. A bulletin board placed inside the station announced each incoming and outgoing train and its assigned track. The station clock was located on the west wall, just above the ticket window. Located to the rear of the depot were four tracks, covered by sheds to allow passengers to avoid inclement weather. The Union Station assumed control of these tracks for two hundred yards in both directions, from the end of platforms.

The station opened with great fanfare on August 4, 1907, with the arrival of the Chesapeake & Ohio Passenger Train #24. A crowd estimated at three thousand was on hand to meet the train. As many as 26 passenger trains operated from the station in its heyday. During both the First and Second World War, the station was the last view of home for servicemen heading overseas.

On May 9, 1957, the last passenger train (the Chesapeake & Ohio’s George Washington) departed from this facility. The station was closed due to high operating overhead and low passenger travel. In March 1960, the building was demolished by the Cleveland Wrecking Company. The Stewart Dry Good’s garage was built in the 1960s on the site.

Uploaded

March 30th, 2019

Statistics

Viewed 831 Times  -  Last Visitor from Fairfield, CT on 04/17/2024 at 6:32 AM

Colors

Embed

Sales Sheet