| In
1891, the National Railroad Association's primary
goal was to build a new rail station in St. Louis.
Architect Teheodore Link received a $10,000 commission
for his work. He was facinated by French castles,
an obsession reflected in his design for the station,
which included three main areas: the Headhouse contained
the Terminal Hotel (now the Hyatt Regency), ticket
offices, waiting rooms, a restaurant (now the Station
Grille) and the offices for the Pullman Terminal Railroad
Association Companies; the Midway was the covered
transfer area for passengers; and the Train Shed was
a large, roofed area encompassing the loading platforms
and tracks.
On
September 15, 1894, St. Louis Union Station, an enormous
project built for merely $6.5 million, opened as the
largest, most beautiful terminal in the United States.
The gem of this new station was its Grand Hall with
its gold leaf, Romanesque arches, 65-foot barrel-vaulted
ceiling and stained glass windows. The most magnificent
of these stained glass windows is the "Allegorical
Window," which is majestically framed by the famous
"Whispering Arch."
St.
Louis became so popular that more than 100,000 passengers
a day began traveling through here making it the biggest
and busiest train station in the world. Unfortunately,
after World War II, the general public began choosing
other forms of transportation and on October 31, 1977,
the final train pulled out of St. Louis Union Station.
The
building was rapidly deteriorating until a snowstorm
delayed James H. Levi in St. Louis. While in town,
he took a tour of the city and came to Union Station.
Levi saw Union Station's potential and in March of
1979, Oppenheimer Properties bought the property for
$5.5 million. In August of 1985, St. Louis Union Station
reopened after a complete $150 million renovation,
making it the largest adaptive re-use project in the
United States. |
