Montgomery Union Station

Montgomery Union Station
inter-city rail station

Union Station Montgomery, circa 1900.
Location Montgomery, Alabama
USA
History
Opened 1898
Closed 1979
Montgomery Union Station and Trainshed
Coordinates 32°22′49″N 86°18′52″W / 32.38028°N 86.31444°W / 32.38028; -86.31444Coordinates: 32°22′49″N 86°18′52″W / 32.38028°N 86.31444°W / 32.38028; -86.31444
Built 1897
Architect Benjamin Bosworth Smith
Architectural style Other, Romanesque
NRHP Reference # 73000368
Significant dates
Added to NRHP July 24, 1973[1]
Designated NHL December 8, 1976[2]

Montgomery Union Station and Trainshed is a historic former train station in Montgomery, Alabama. Built in 1898 by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, rail service to the station ended in 1979 and it has since been adapted for use by the Montgomery Area Visitor Center and commercial tenants. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and became a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

History

Erected of brick and limestone on a high bluff along the Alabama River, the station was built by Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1898. The station also served passenger trains of Atlantic Coast Line, Western Railway of Alabama, Seaboard Air Line, Central of Georgia, and Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. The station had six tracks under a 600-foot shed, with a coach yard on the south end of the station as well as a Railway Express Agency facility. The station's design segregated passengers by race and incorporated Romanesque Revival elements.

Postcard of Union Station, Alabama Archives- circa 1915

The number of passenger trains using Union Station declined during the 1950s and 1960s. When Amtrak came into existence in 1971, it continued passenger service through Montgomery with a single train (the South Wind, later renamed the Floridian), operating between Chicago and Miami. However, this train was terminated in 1979 and Union Station was closed.

An Amtrak train under the Union Station Train Shed, 1974.

After a period of disuse, Union Station was renovated for commercial tenants. The train shed still stands, although tracks under it have been replaced by asphalt parking. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.[2][3]

Amtrak returned to Montgomery in 1989 with an extension of the Crescent called the Gulf Breeze from Birmingham to Mobile, but Union Station was not used. Instead, Amtrak contracted with a travel agent who occupied a former grain silo nearby. This Amtrak service was terminated in 1995, and Montgomery has had no passenger rail service since.

Among other tenants, Union Station currently hosts the Montgomery Area Visitor Center.

See also

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 "Montgomery Union Station and Trainshed". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
  3. ↑ Dennis M. Zembala (August 2, 1976), National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Louisville & Nashville Railroad : Montgomery Union Station and Trainshed/Montgomery Union Station (pdf), National Park Service and "Accompanying 5 photos, exterior and interior, from 1925, 1970, 1972, and 1974.". External link in |title= (help); Accompanying 5 photos, exterior and interior, from 1925, 1970, 1972, and 1974. (1.87 MB)

Media related to Montgomery Union Station at Wikimedia Commons

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