Union Station (Columbus, Ohio)

Columbus Union Station and its predecessors served railroad passengers in Columbus, Ohio from February 27 1850, until April 28 1977.

History

Columbus Union Station as it is recalled today was actually the third Union Station in Columbus. The previous two served in the nineteenth century, and their replacement and upgrade reflected the rapid growth in traffic and importance of Columbus' railroads at that time. The subsequent decline in rail passenger traffic following World War II was reflected in Union Station's demolition and replacement with a convention center in the early 1980s.

The first station (1851)

In 1851 an 18 acre site north of Naughten Street and east of High Street was purchased jointly from Orange Johnson by the Columbus and Xenia Railroad (C&X) and Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad (CC&C). A wood barn structure measuring 90 by convert|175|ft|m was installed to serve passengers, the rest of the site given over to shops and freight tracks. The station had three tracks for loading and unloading of passengers. In 1853, the Central Ohio Railroad entered the city and connected to the station. In 1864, the Steubenville and Indiana Railroad was connected the Central Ohio at Newark, and entered the station on shared tracks. This road was called the "panhandle route" because it crossed the panhandle of West Virginia on its way east. The station was inadequate and in 1868 the railroads formed the Union Depot Company to undertake a replacement.

The second station (1875)

In May, 1873 work was begun on the second union station north of the existing station, and it opened on February 14 1875. The first station was then demolished. Compared to its wooden predecessor, this new station was far more substantial. Constructed of brick, it had a large waiting room, ticket offices and railroad offices at the front of the structure. Seven tracks entered the structure and a long train shed kept passengers dry. In 1875, 42 daily passenger trains departed from the station.

The problem crossing High Street

The City of Columbus continued to grow northward with the opening of The Ohio State University in 1870. With the opening of the new union station, thirteen tracks now crossed north high street. The congestion between train and road traffic became unbearable. In 1875, a $45,000 tunnel was built under the tracks to allow streetcars and horsecarts to pass under the tracks. An extra mule was stationed at the tunnel entrance to assist horsecars up the steep grade. The tunnel was convert|150|ft|m long with convert|550|ft|m|sing=on approaches on either side. It was so dank and smelly that only the horsecar passengers, who had no other choice, would use it.

The third station (1897)

In 1891 the traffic situation on High Street reached a crisis, with the roadway blocked for up to seven hours per day by crossing trains. In 1893 the architectural firm of Daniel H. Burnham & Company of Chicago began planning a new facility. A key feature of the new station would be a road viaduct over the tracks, finally solving the traffic/train problem on North High Street. In 1893 the old station was handling 112 passenger trains per day.

The new station opened in 1897, and the Arcade was finished in 1899. The Arcade was unique to Columbus and consisted of stores and offices built atop the viaduct and facing High Street. An elevated roadway connected High Street to the station to the east. The station increased the number of depot tracks from seven to nine.

The architecture of the station drew on Burnham's experience designing the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. The style was Beaux-Arts Classicism, a late 19th century style often applied to monumental structures.

In May 1928, part of the Arcade was demolished to expand the driveway to the station to better accommodate automobiles. In April 1931, the train shed was replaced with an enclosed concourse. In 1956, Columbus was down to 42 daily passenger trains, the lowest number since 1875.

Daily passenger trains fell to 21 in 1962, and just 10 in 1970. It was clear that the completion of the interstates and popularity of automobiles would soon mean the end of passenger rail service in Columbus. On May 1 1971, Amtrak took over most of what was left of passenger service in the United States.

Decline and demolition (1976-1979)

At 6 pm on Friday, October 22 1976 the deteriorating Arcade was demolished by a consortium led by the Battelle Memorial Institute to make way for a new convention center. This despite the arcade having been listed on the National Register of Historic Places two years earlier. The demolition was sneakily timed to turn the building into rubble before preservationists could act. A restraining order by a judge halted demolition, but it was too late and only one arch of the ornate structure was saved. It remains on display in the Arena District's Dimon McPherson Park directly across Nationwide Boulevard from Nationwide Arena. The land the arch sits on was formerly occupied by the Ohio Penitentiary.

While the Arcade was gone, Union Station continued to serve rail passengers even as the number of trains dwindled to one daily, and the restaurant and newsstand closed. On April 28 1977, the last train Amtrak's National Limited departed Union Station at 9:17 am for Kansas City. The cost of operating the station was too great, so it was replaced with a metal shed located east of the station near the 4th Street viaduct.

The station was finally demolished in September 1979. The need for the yards and servicing facilities for freight traffic had been eliminated by the construction of the new Buckeye Yard west of the city by the Penn Central in the late 1960s. The multitrack yards and shop areas eventually gave way to I-670 in the early 1990s. Ironically, the viaduct over I-670 was constructed with a cap, and shops lining High Street reminiscent of the long gone Arcade.

Railroads in the order they entered Union Station

*Columbus and Xenia Railroad - 1850
*Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad - 1851
*Central Ohio Railroad - 1853
*Columbus Piqua and Indiana Railroad - 1853

References

* Darbee, Jeffrey T. (2003). "Taking the Cars: A History of Columbus Union Station", Columbus: Columbus Historical Society. ISBN 0-9742573-0-3.
* Darbee, Jeffrey T. (2003). [http://www.indianahistory.org/ihs_press/web_publications/railroad04/darbee.html "A Tale of Three Cities:The Union Stations of Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati"] , Indiana Historical Society on-line.
* Steiner, Rowlee. "A Review of Columbus Railroads", 1952, unpublished 125 page manuscript available from the library of the [http://www.ohiohistory.org/places/ohc/index.html#location Ohio Historical Society] , 1982 Velma Drive, Columbus, Ohio 43211
* "Public Interest in the Preservation of Historic Buildings has Risen Since the Demolition of the Historic Arcade at the Old Union Station Site." Columbus Dispatch, November 7 1976, pg. 12A.
* "Demolition of the Historic Union Station is Halted after Franklin Co. Common Pleas Judge George Tyack Issued a Temporary Restraining Order." Columbus Dispatch, October 24 1976, pg. 1A.
* "The Unused Union Station Entrance at 348 N. High St is Placed on the National Register of Historic Places; The Designation will Affect Plans for the Proposed Convention Center." Columbus Dispatch, February 12 1974, pg. 1B.
* "The Columbus City Council Approves the Purchase of the Union Station Land for the 27 acre Downtown Convention Center Site." Columbus Dispatch, January 23 1973, pg. 1B.
* "The Convention Center Building Commission Announces that the Penn Central Transportation Co. Approved an Agreement to Sell its Union Station for About $5.7 mil." Columbus Dispatch, April 4 1972, pg. 1A.

External links

* [http://home.columbus.rr.com/unionstation/ Columbus Union Station History Website] - a thorough and well illustrated history.
* [http://www.columbusconventions.com/home_nf.asp Greater Columbus Convention Center] - built where Union Station once stood.
* [http://64.71.57.101/ Columbus, Ohio Railroads] Special focus on the horsecar and streetcar lines, and you can take a [http://64.71.57.101/streetcars%201914.htm walk down High Street in 1914] .