Towns and Nature: Grand Rapids, MI: Union Station

Tom Carter posted
My grandpa took this photo of Union Station in Grand Rapids in 1911, when he was about 18 years old. We’re looking southwest at the Ionia Avenue side of the depot, with streetcar tracks in front. The station served several railroads including the Pere Marquette/C&O, Grand Rapids & Indiana/Pennsylvania, Michigan Central/New York Central and other predecessors. The train shed and freight depots are located just behind the station. A Carl Bajema article notes a 1905 report estimating that 1000 passenger tickets per day were sold here, and that 20,000 trains, 100,000 cars, and 750,000 people passed through this depot and train shed that year. Those “specs” in the sky are street lights strung on cables, and I suspect the dark spot above the chimney is a blotch on the photo, not a mysterious balloon hovering overhead.
[Comments determined it opened in 1900. This or a replacement was torn down in 1960. Grand Trunk continued to use their own depot.]
Russ Andre My grandfather, who worked for the New York Central, used to take me there often. He was able to take me beyond the gates and right out to the tracks where trains were coming and going. Took the train a lot as a kid with my parents. Mostly to Detroit, Chicago and New York City. The interior of the station was really cool. Wooden benches, a high ceiling, a coffee shop, ticket booths, news stand and shoe shine. I believe the station was designed by the same architect that designed Grand Central Station in New York City. It would have been great to save!

Al Koole If memory serves,,, there is a twin of this design in Richmond Ind.,,possibly on the old GRand I