Cincinnati Union Terminal is a National Historic Landmark with significant connections to major themes in American history, including transportation, art, architecture, and music.
Union Terminal, an iconic symbol of Cincinnati and one of the most significant Art Deco structures in the country, opened in 1933 with a capacity of 216 trains a day. The second largest half-dome in the world, the 180-foot-wide and 106-foot-tall rotunda features glass mosaic murals by Winold Reiss depicting the history of Cincinnati and the United States. As the Cincinnati Museum Center, the largest cultural institution in the city, Union Terminal houses the Cincinnati History Museum, Cincinnati History Library and Archives, Duke Energy Children’s Museum, Museum of Natural History and Science, and the Robert D. Lindner Family OMNIMAX Theater.
Andrew Mooney: Great picture I recently wrote about this
▪️The Cincinnati Union Terminal a symbol of city pride and the largest Art Deco train station in the country. Paul Philippe Cret built the station in 1933 and prior to this design he built the Detroit Institute of the Arts, Indianapolis Public Library, World War I Memorial and the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia. However all those buildings are neoclassical traditional buildings and this will be his first Art Deco Structure. At the time Cincinnati had 5 railway stations each having structural problems because of flooding of the Ohio River so the city decided to replace them all with just one large terminal. Perhaps the reason why Cret was chosen is because they needed something very big.
▪️When you first enter the massively large 500,000 square foot structure you are in awe of the grandeur, it’s like walking into an enormous European cathedral. This train station is the second largest half dome in the world. The front 100 foot high arched window is made up of over a thousand smaller windows bringing in warm natural light inside an enormous room. On the back wall there is over a million pieces of colored glass put together by artist Winold Reiss creating 23 giant mosaics depicting the history of Cincinnati. Reiss spent two years assembling this back wall with a small crew of dedicated artists using special colored glass, each one smaller than a dime. This 12,000 square foot set of murals is the largest non religious mosaic in the world. Everywhere you look is bright warm and cheerful. Your eyes automatically rise up to see a ceiling that looks like something of how a child would explain what heaven is like. The ceiling is bathed in natural light from the 100 foot wall of windows and a 180 foot gold and yellow rainbow on the ceiling. The rail yards and supporting structures, takes up an area of 280 acres, 8.5 million bricks and 45 thousand tons of steel was used to build this largest art deco train station in the country.
▪️The official opening of the station was on March 31, 1934 taking 4 years and over 41 million dollars to build. The city needed a large space that could accommodate 17,000 passengers on over 280 trains a day. These trains connected the country in all directions. During the early 1940s this room hosted scenes of families saying goodby to soldiers heading off to war not knowing if they would return. In this pre mall era people would spend the day in the terminal, there was a post office, movie theater, dress shops, restaurants and even a barbershop in 22 buildings in all. In 1945 after the war was over the city held a New Year’s Eve party inside celebrating the end of the war with over 10 thousand people inside (see the picture in the comments).
▪️However, in the 1950s as the interstate highway was completed and larger airports were being erected, train travel lost its popularity and the railroads were loosing money. In the 1960s many of the nation’s largest train stations were being closed and some even demolished. The once great hall holding thousands was holding only a few hundred people a day and the trains were half empty. Sadly October 28, 1972, the last passenger train departed the Cincinnati’s Union Station and just a few years later half of the complex was torn down sparing the great hall for now. Volunteers took down some of the murals of those rooms and reassembled the mosaics at the airport. For years the city struggled with what to do with this enormous closed building. A conversation hall, jail, indoor soccer were all proposed in the years that followed but nothing really fit. Briefly in the early 1980s it was converted into a mall with several dozen stores however it didn’t get much of a response.
▪️For the next two decades proposals crossed the desk of city hall of what to do with this once treasured landmark. Finally when the children’s and natural history museums needed a new home it looked like the train station would be a good fit. In 2014 the voters agreed to support a massive restoration project of $228 million and for the next two years the city updated the outdated electrical systems, crumbling facade, dirty tiles, and broken windows. Today it houses several museums including the Cincinnati History Museum, Library and Archives, Children’s Museum, Natural History and Science, along with an OMNIMAX Theater. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places officially listed as a monument worthy of preservation.
🔺Click on the link to see a video about The Cincinnati Union Station and a second about the restoration of the enormous clock. Also check out the comments for more great pictures and while you are there please leave a message I like your feedback.
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