Thursday, October 24, 2013

the third and final Union Station of Columbus, Ohio


A postcard apparently from the 1920s with streetcar tracks in the foreground. This third station opened in 1897 with the Arcade finished in 1899. The Arcade was unique to Columbus and consisted of stores and offices built atop a road viaduct over the tracks and facing High Street. An elevated roadway connected High Street to the station to the east. The station increased the number of depot tracks from seven to nine. The style was Beaux-Arts Classicism, a late 19th-century style often applied to monumental structures.

After WW2 passenger traffic declined steadily In 1956 it was down to 42 daily passenger trains, 21 in 1962, and just 10 in 1970.

The Arcade was controversially demolished in 1976 (although one arch was saved and is on display in a park) and the last passenger train departed in April 1977.  The rest of the station was demolished in 1979.

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