St. Louis Union Station!

What Is St. Louis Union Station?

What Makes It Historical?

On April 1, 1890, the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis settled on a location for the city’s main railroad terminal! It would be a starting point and an ending point, but there were no plans for trains to pass through! Instead, passengers who wanted to travel beyond St. Louis would transfer to different lines here. Keeping in line with the monumental Victorian styles of the time, the judges picked the Richardsonian Romanesque design of Theodore C. Link, who would later go on to design the Mississippi State Capitol!

The cornerstone on the new Union Station went down on July 8, 1893, and the station, plus its Terminal Hotel, opened for business September 1, 1894! Accompanying this grand building was the largest train shed in the United States, designed by George H. Pegram and boasting 32 tracks! But all that wasn’t enough by the 1920s, when a baggage building and 10 more tracks were added on. During World War II, upwards of 2 million passengers passed through this station every day! The rise of the automobile took its toll, though, and while trains declined at the St. Louis Union Station, the hotel is still in operation while the train shed now houses the St. Louis Aquarium!

How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?

Spend the night at the St. Louis Union Station Hotel!
Donate to the State Historical Society of Missouri!
Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!