Union Station (Nashville)

Nashville's Union Station is a former railroad terminal designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and Richard Montfort that was constructed beginning in 1898 and officially opened over two years later in 1900.[1] Montfort - an engineer of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) - spent several years planning the building's construction, and it is now known for its striking Romanesque Revival architecture that stands out from other train stations of the time.[1] At the time, Nashville was becoming a modern metropolis in the South, and the terminal was created to cater to an increasing amount of guests who used trains to reach the city.[1] The station served passengers of multiple railroads, the most prevalent of which being the L&N and the Nashville, Chattanooga, & St. Louis Line (NC&StL).[2]

Built just west of the downtown area, it was spanned by a viaduct adjacent to the station and positioned to the east and above a natural railroad cut, through which most of the tracks in the area were routed. The station was also used by streetcars prior to their discontinuance in Nashville in 1941.[3]

History

The Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) was the primary railroad operating routes through the Union Station.[7] This line ran routes throughout the Southeastern U.S., eventually reaching some Midwestern hubs such as Chicago.[7] The company's principal railroads began being built in 1853 between Kentucky and Tennessee, and the first segments of the railroad opened in 1855.[7] The L&N's charter was completed in 1859 when it reached Nashville, but Civil War tensions between Union-led Kentucky and Confederate-led Tennessee halted further construction of the railroad.[7]

Union Station (Nashville) was opened October 9, 1900 as a Louisville & Nashville Railroad station, and it had a long history of operation before it shut down in October 1979. It quickly became one of the busiest railway stations in the United States, with hundreds of people moving through it each day.[1] When a new post office was built in Nashville in 1935, it was located adjacent to Union Station.[8] A connecting passageway between the two was used to transport mail to and from trains for more than three decades.

The station reached peak usage during World War II when it served as the shipping-out point for tens of thousands of U.S. troops and was the site of a USO canteen.[1] The station's decline started in the 1960s, amid the larger nationwide decline in passenger rail service.[9] As the government increased construction of interstates and other highways - and the cost of the personal vehicle became more affordable - passenger services on the railways began to decline rapidly.[9] By the end of the decade, the L&N was the only railroad using the station. Only six trains per day stopped there, down from 16 in the late 1940s.

The primary passenger trains through Nashville over the years included:

Decline

Amtrak took over intercity service on May 1, 1971. For much of 1971, Nashville was severed from the national rail network. On November 14, 1971, Amtrak began running a single route through Nashville, the Floridian, successor of the South Wind, with service once in each direction between Chicago and–via a split in Wildwood, Florida–St. Petersburg and Miami. However, the Floridian made its final run on October 9, 1979, after being plagued by rampant delays. The last train to call at Union Station was a southbound Floridian, ending over 120 years of intercity rail service in Nashville. Many of its open spaces were roped off, and its architectural features became largely a habitat for pigeons for several years.

After it closed, the station fell into the custody of the federal government's General Services Administration, which struggled for years to find a viable redevelopment plan as the station continued to decline. Nashville locals continuously rejected plans that did not include retaining the main terminal building.

Redevelopment

The site remained vacant until 1986 when a group of investors worked together to turn it into a luxury hotel with 125 luxury rooms and 12 suites.[10][11]

nrhp type	NRHP
nrhp type2	formernhl
coordinates	36.1572°N, -86.7848°W
architect	Richard Montfort
added	December 30, 1969
designated nrhp type2	1975
delisted nrhp type2	July 31, 2003
refnum	69000178
embed	yes

Union Station (Nashville)

History

Decline

Redevelopment

Architecture and interior

See also

External links

References

Historical landmark