The Great American Rail Adventure: Background: Train Stations

Friday, June 21, 2019

Background: Train Stations - Noteworthy and Inspiring

There are a lot of great train stations across the country - buildings that are beautiful, classic, architecturally noteworthy civic landmarks. People should keep an eye out for them and visit them when they get a chance.

Train stations in the larger cities were among the largest and most significant buildings in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, with grand and ornate waiting rooms and halls. My favorites include Grand Central Terminal in New York City (a beautiful design and an amazing engineering feat), Union Station in Washington, D.C. (a magnificent Beaux-Arts design), and Union Station in Los Angeles (a distinct Mission Style/Art Deco design).

Other historic stations I visited on my 2019 trip included Union Station in Chicago, King Street Station in Seattle, Union Station in Portland, Oregon, the Sacramento Valley Terminal, Union Passenger Terminal in New Orleans, Pennsylvania Station in Baltimore and South Station in Boston.

It's worth spending a little time in all of these impressive buildings. As a bonus, they often have displays of historic photos showing the growth of the cities they're in and the evolution of the train stations.

In smaller cities, the stations were focal points in their communities. They still have a strong presence in places such as La Crosse, Wisconsin, Williston, North Dakota, El Paso, Texas and Lafayette, Louisiana. The interiors, usually with beautiful handcrafted woodwork, are as nice as the exteriors.

In many cities around the country, historic stations that aren't still being used as train stations have been converted into hotels, museums, offices or retail space. Unfortunately, some historic stations have been demolished. Most notably, the original Pennsylvania Station in New York was torn down in the 1960s to make way for the new Penn Station, underneath Madison Square Garden, with low ceilings and cramped, maze-like corridors. The historic station's demise is often credited with giving rise to the historic preservation movement in the United States.

Here are a few photos, in addition to the photos I included in previous posts.