Lexington, KY: 1907-57 L&N+C&O Union Station and 1908 Southern Station

Union: (Satellite)

Southern: (Satellite, the concrete foundation of the depot appears to be extant.)

Owen Rouse posted

Union Station, Main Street, Lexington, circa 1950

From 1907 until 1957 L&N and C&O trains deposited and took on passengers at a shared depot on East Main Street, beside the Walnut Street Viaduct (Martin Luther King).  After boarding only a few steps from the shops, hotels and restaurants in the heart of town, passengers could enjoy a trip to destinations including Louisville, KY and Washington, D.C.  On the corner by the station, the Zero Milestone marked the center of town.

It was torn down in 1960.

Chris Hager shared

The station is now a parking garage, and the tracks are now more parking and Vine and Water Streets.

Street View, Sep 2017

1952 Lexington West and East Quads @ 24,000

I noticed there was a road that looped between Main Street and the front of the station.

1952 Lexington East Quad @ 24,000

Sure enough, they had a small park in front of the station. In hindsight, we can see part of this park in Owen's photo to the right of the MLK/Walnut Street.

kyphotoarchive_park
Union Station park, 1950

kyphotoarchive_station
Lexington’s Union Station, 1944
"Lexington's Union Station located on Main Street, 1944. It had opened with great fanfare on Aug. 4, 1907, with the arrival of C&O passenger train No. 24. A crowd estimated at 3,000 met the train. The terminal fronted Main Street, just west of Walnut Street, which has been renamed Martin Luther King Boulevard. The exterior was built with red and yellow brick, and green and red glass. The lobby was in the center rotunda, which was 50 by 80 feet, with a central dome 50 feet high. The lobby had a Roman arch ceiling and six oak waiting benches. The last passenger train (the George Washington) departed from the station on May 9, 1957. Union Station was closed because of high operating overhead and low passenger travel. In March 1960, the building was demolished. The current building at the site houses the Lexington Police Department, the Fayette County clerk’s office and the downtown's busiest parking garage, the Annex Garage.Lexington’s Union Station on Main Street, 1944. It had opened with great fanfare on Aug. 4, 1907, with the arrival of C&O passenger train No. 24. A crowd estimated at 3,000 people met the train. The terminal fronted Main Street, just west of Walnut Street, which has been renamed Martin Luther King Boulevard. The exterior was built with red and yellow brick, and green and red glass. The lobby was in the center rotunda, which was 50 by 80 feet, with a central dome 50 feet high. The lobby had a Roman arch ceiling and six oak waiting benches. The last passenger train (the George Washington) departed from the station on May 9, 1957. Union Station was closed because of high operating overhead and low passenger travel. In March 1960, the building was demolished. The current building at the site houses the Lexington Police Department, the Fayette County clerk’s office and the downtown’s busiest parking garage, the Annex Garage. Click here to see more images of Union Station from our archives."

RailFanning
The first railroad built from Lexington was charted in 1830. That railroad was chartered to build to the nearest navigable waterway, in this case the Ohio River. They went west to Louisville via Frankfort so that they could meet the river downstream of the "Falls of the Ohio."

kyphotoarchive_interior, 1944

In the left background, it looks like there is a grain elevator by the tracks.

unknown, “Union Station in Lexington, KY,” Digital Collections, accessed March 22, 2024,
 https://digitalcollections.eku.edu/items/show/1819.

SamTerrysKentucky
"Off one side of the lobby one found the “ladies’ retiring rooms” which included a dressing room and toilets for female passengers. Off of another side of the lobby were the “men’s smoking rooms” featuring a washroom, toilets, and smoking room. The east end of the lobby included a separate space, the “colored waiting rooms” with a separate entrance. The west end featured the ticket window with the station clock above it. Union Station was demolished for a parking garage in 1960 by Stewart Dry Goods which operated nearby."

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Southern

historic-structures
"The Southern Railway Passenger Depot is a remarkably intact early twentieth-century Georgian Revival-style railroad station. It has experienced very few architectural changes and is a Lexington landmark with its highly visible location on South Broadway. It has the dubious distinction of being the last major railroad station standing in Central Kentucky. According to a 1906 newspaper article, the building was designed by H. Herrington; it was constructed in 1906-08."

KentuckyArchaeologicalSurvey

 

pinterest

The concrete foundation for the depot is now a parking lot for an NS office building.

Street View, Apr 2012

In 1987, it was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places Inventory. [nps] I don't know if it made it, but if it did, it didn't help save it.