In 1963, America learned a painful lesson when Pennsylvania Station, an architectural treasure that Senator Daniel Moynihan described as “the best thing in our city,” was torn down and replaced with a dreary complex that includes an office building and Madison Square Garden. The rail station, to this day the nation’s busiest, was moved underground into a claustrophobic warren of artificially lit passageways and bleak waiting rooms. While there has been an active campaign since the 1990’s to rectify the mistake by creating a new and worthy station a block away, the $1 billion-plus project remains stuck in political gridlock.
But the sad saga of Penn was by no means an isolated incident. Almost like a rite of passage, cities across the country embraced the era of Interstates, Big Macs, and suburban sprawl by tearing down their train depots. (Frequently, they just did the Joni Mitchell thing and put up a parking lot.) But time and experience are showing that train stations are vital organs in a healthy city, and removing them deadens the entire organism. The lesson is especially stark at the moment, as cities around the country face the challenge of rebuilding the infrastructure for regional high speed rail networks. Chicago–once abundantly blessed with grand stations–is today bouncing around ideas for a new high speed rail depot.
One lesson of this legacy is that what replaces a well designed and centrally located rail depot is rarely of equal worth to the city. Following is a tour of 10 great depots that were lost to demolition orders–plus one more that might be still–and what stands on those sites today.
1. NEW YORK CITY: Pennsylvania Station
THEN: “The best thing in our city,” according to Sen. Daniel Moynihan
WHAT’S THERE NOW: The new Penn Station is a dingy labyrinth beneath an ugly arena
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2. MEMPHIS - Union Station
When this city’s Union Station opened in 1912, it was the largest stone structure in town. But when the U.S. Postal Service announced that it needed new land in the city in the late 1960s, the magnificent building was chosen for demolition because it no longer attracted the crowds that it had once brought into the city. Any interest in saving the structure itself was ignored.
These days Memphis is expressing interest in being part of the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor.
THEN: A grand Beaux Arts depot for a thriving city
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WHAT’S THERE NOW: A windowless postal facility surrounded by barbed wire
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3. ATLANTA - Terminal Station
Atlanta was once the largest rail crossroads in the south. Travelers could get virtually everywhere quickly and conveniently by rail. Built in 1905, Terminal was the grand portal to the city. It had two Italianate towers and a huge train shed behind. When the station was razed in 1970, it was replaced by a government office building. These days Atlanta’s intercity rail depot is a small former commuter rail station located far north of downtown, adjacent to a 16-lane highway.
Recently, Georgia governor Sonny Perdue–after scouting the passenger rail systems in Spain and China–has enthusiastically embraced the idea of a high speed rail network for the southeastern US. Of course, Atlanta would be a network hub–and very likely in need of a suitable depot.
THEN: A fitting portal to a regional capital
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NOW: A government office building
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4. BIRMINGHAM, AL - Terminal Station
In 1909, Birmingham opened its grand Terminal Station, which united the train services of six operators. The two block-long Byzantine-styled complex had 10 tracks, and when opened was the largest of its kind in the South.
Yet this station — which served a peak of 54 trains a day in 1943 — by 1969 only was seeing seven daily arrivals. As a result, the city chose to demolish the structure that year. Although the land was originally intended for a new federal building, a highway was built there instead.
Today, Birmingham is slated as a primary stop on the designated high speed rail corridor linking New Orleans and Atlanta.
THEN: An impressive and centrally located depot
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NOW: A connector highway
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5. CHICAGO: Grand Central Station
Perhaps more than any other American city, Chicago’s destiny has been a result of its transportation links to the rest of the country. As such, it had something of an abundance of train stations. Even while it still has four commuter terminals inside the Loop, knocking down impressive stations like Grand Central did not yield much for the city. The site of this former station, prime real estate on the banks of the Illinois River, is still a vacant lot after nearly four decades.
THEN: Located on the banks of the Chicago River, the beautiful station with ornate marble floors, Corinthian columns, and a fireplace. It served travelers to DC and many other cities.
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NOW: A vacant lot
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6. CHICAGO: Central Station
This 13-story Romanesque structure was built in 1893 and demolished eight decades later. Like former Grand Central, the site remains undeveloped to this day.
THEN: A well-designed depot in the heart of downtown on the shore of Lake Michigan
(Pic)
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NOW: Undeveloped land at the edge of Grant Park
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7. ROCHESTER: NY Central Railroad Station
Rochester’s principal train station opened in 1914, with New York Central Railroad connections to New York, Albany, and Buffalo. The elaborate curved brick exterior made a prominent mark on downtown. But the decline in passenger traffic emptied the station by the late 1950s, and the building was razed in 1965. In its place? A parking lot.
THEN: A local architectural triumph and an important part of the local infrastructure
NOW: A parking lot and an unappealing Amtrak facility
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8. ATLANTA: Union Station
After being built in 1930, the smaller of Atlanta’s train depots was demolished in 1972.
THEN: A centrally-located secondary depot serving a large city
NOW: A parking lot
(Pic)
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9. BOSTON - North Station
Boston completed its Union Station in 1895, but tore it down only thirty years later to build the Boston Garden basketball arena. Which is to say, the city lost a beautiful neoclassical structure for its train services, replacing it instead with a basement of a stadium. When the Garden itself was demolished for a new arena in 1995–the mellifluously-named TD BankNorth Garden–North Station was renewed as an underground facility (still, sadly, not directly linked to the city’s larger South Station). While it’s easy to pick on the new Garden’s bland design, the new building is at least a vital and economically productive part of the city’s fabric. The fact that North Station fell so long ago, might have something to do with this.
THEN: An important portal for commuter and intercity rail travelers traveling to or from points north
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NOW: The new Garden and an underground rail station
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10. SAVANNAH: Union Station
Completed in 1902, the Savannah Union Station stood on the west end of downtown with its two Spanish Renaissance towers marking its presence on the historic city’s skyline. For blacks in the city, Union Station was the center of life. All that changed, however, in 1963 when building the depot and much of the neighborhood around it was bulldozed to make way for the tail end of an Interstate.
If Gov. Sonny Perdue gets his way, Savannah will someday reclaim its rail heritage and become a stop on an HSR link between Atlanta and Jacksonville.
THEN: An attractive and well-used depot in the center of town
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NOW: Feeder ramps at the tail end of a highway
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11. DETROIT - MICHIGAN CENTRAL STATION
Unlike the other stations on this list, Michigan Central is still standing. But if the Detroit city council gets its way the station, which was the 1912 encore act by the same team of architects that designed NYC’s Grand Central (itself almost a victim of the wrecking ball until the US Supreme Court intervened in 1978), will be demolished. Ironically, the city council wants to use funds from the stimulus act–the same piece of legislation that provided $8 billion to begin building a high speed rail network–to do the dirty work on Michigan Central.
Though it has suffered two decades of vandalism and disuse, the depot remains well worth saving. With a bit of imagination it could be part of Detroit’s future as a hub on the Midwest regional HSR network.
THEN AND NOW: The building was the second act of the architects who designed NYC’s Grand Central Terminal. But will it be demolished now as Grand Central almost was in the ’70s (even years after the epic mistake of tearing down Penn)?
SEE PART 2 OF THIS SERIES HERE: 6 MORE STATIONS
See Also:
Beyond the Cloverleaf: “The Butt” and 21 Other Crazy Highway Interchanges You’ve Never Heard of
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Highways to Nowhere: America’s 7 Most Ridiculous New Road Building Projects
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America Rediscovers the Streetcar (Map)
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Yonah Freemark is an independent researcher currently working in France on comparative urban development as part of a Gordon Grand Fellowship from Yale University, from which he graduated in May 2008 with a BA in architecture. He writes about transportation and land use issues for The Transport Politic and The Infrastructurist.
Jebediah Reed is the editor of The Infrastructurist
Painting Roads and Roofs White to Fight Global Warming
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:52 am
Great post, yet extremely depressing at the same time. When you look at the pictures of these terminals, you think who in their right mind could tear those down? Especially when you look at NYP.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:11 am
Great post. Fascinating to see how America go so utilitarian and ugly as our addiction to cars grew in the later half of last century.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:21 am
An interesting corollary would be extant stations that have had their usability greatly hampered for one reason or another, like the demolition of the concourse at Chicago Union or the removal of through tracks at Denver Union. These buildings still exist and are used as train stations, but are crippled and can’t reach their full potential, often due to some misguided attempt at urban redevelopment.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:28 am
Excellent post. It’s a shame we’ve lost so much, especially considering that we might need these sorts of places once again in the near future. Of course the architecture of today will be hard-pressed to match the grandeur of years past.
Just one teensie correction, though: Birmingham is NOT the capital of Alabama. They’ve got Montgomery for that. It is the state’s largest city though.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:31 am
Thank you so much for this post. It is definitely going to be a bookmarked one. I need to be continually reminded why we must not turn a blind eye to our historical structures still standing.
Peace.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:47 am
Really great article about the gems we have lost. Hopefully it will motivate all of us to work harder to keep it from happening to any other depots/stations!
Keep up the good work!
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:52 am
Thanks, Matt — fixed.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:58 am
[...] had a link this morning to todays blog on The Infrastructurist about “Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball” at http://www.infrastructurist.com/ . You can follow them at [...]
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:12 pm
[...] posted here: Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking … Filed under: Exterior Design, 2009-at-1052-am, 2009-at-1111-am, 2009-at-1121-am, 2009-at-1128-am, [...]
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Makes me glad to be from Philly. We may have demolished this — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Street_Station_(Philadelphia) — but at least it was replaced with another station. This city is lucky in that the same municipal backwardsness that restricted our transit growth also restricted the growth of highways here.
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:14 pm
This was a great piece. Sad, but great. Really puts into perspective the process by which we overprioritized private spaces and neglected (and indeed ruined) so many of our great public spaces over the course of the 20th century.
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:20 pm
My favorite quote about the demolition of the grand old Penn Station compared to the dank, pallid sewer of a place that replaced it. (might have been Jane Jacobs, can’t recall):
“Where once you arrived [in New York] like a king, now you come in like a rat.”
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:21 pm
It is disgusting how we have disregarded and diminished some of our greatest infrastructure to the point of just being vague memories. A highway spur or a parking lot or a garbage post office holds nothing in economic potential that a rail station does.
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Next, how about a positive post: 10 great stations that need to be saved and reused:
1) Start with Detroit
2) Buffalo’s Central Terminal
…..keep going, I bet there are some other great opportunities out there!
Also, what about new train stations that show that we can build nice new stations:
1) Albany-Rensselaer is a very attractive (if not destinctive) station that opened recently and is much nicer than the bland-1970s era amtrak shed it repalced. I think the Albany station benefited because the station ties the state capital to NYC…but still, we can build nice stations if we put our mind to it. It has all the ‘comforts’ of a nice new airline terminal without all the requisite headaches of airline travel.
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:47 pm
“5. CHICAGO: Grand Central Station
Perhaps more than any other American city, Chicago’s destiny has been a result of its transportation links to the rest of the country.”
Perhaps? Really? How about “Certainly,” or “Obviously,” or maybe “Blatantly.”
Inquiring minds should dig around for Trains Magazine’s July 2003 issue devoted almost entirely to the city of Chicago. It’s possibly the best history on the city I’ve ever read.
Anyway…at the risk of everybody adding their home city, I would strongly nominate Minneapolis Union Depot (also called Minneapolis Great Northern Depot). It was torn down in 1978 and became a vacant lot for quite a while. Only recently has the site become the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Luckily, Minneapolis still has its Milwaukee Road Depot, but any chance of being used again was recently dashed by a notoriously stupid city council when they allowed a huge condo development to be built directly behind the train shed. St. Paul still has it’s Union Station.
TLP, you guys ARE lucky in Philly! I’ve been to 30th Street Station, and…WOW!! People in both St. Louis and Cincinnati are also lucky.
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Dan,
Was thinking of including Great Northern Depot, but the land is being used productively these days and the Fed building is architecturally interesting and a meaningful addition to the city. It was great looking station though. Chicago North Western was another one — gorgeous structure that was partially demolished but today lives on a commuter rail station.
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Columbus, OH Union Station is another notable one.
THEN… NOW (70s era convention center).
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Next, how about a positive post: 10 great stations that need to be saved and reused:
1) Start with Detroit
2) Buffalo’s Central Terminal
…..keep going, I bet there are some other great opportunities out there!
I agree, this would be a great post, concentrating on what should be done.
1. Stations that can be saved and revitalized, the first two are the most notable I can think of.
2. Stations that have been revitalized…one in my area comes to mind (Worcester, MA Union Station)
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I didn’t realize how lucky I was to be able to enjoy 30th Street Station in Philly until I read this. Now if only they would reopen the underground passage linking to the subway…. It’s been closed since the 1950s and you currently need to go outside and cross a busy intersection to go back downstairs to the subway concourse.
(P.S. It’s spelled Joni Mitchell, not “Joanie”.)
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
What about Broad Street Station in Philadelphia?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Street_Station_(Philadelphia)
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:16 pm
One correction re: Chicago’s Grand Central — it’s the South branch of the Chicago River, not the Illinois River. The Illinois starts in Chicago’s far-southwestern exurbs at the confluence of two rivers that run through the suburbs. Only one of those, the Des Plaines, runs a short distance through the city itself, near O’Hare International Airport.
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:39 pm
@ BDC - A minor quibble - the convention center was built in the 1990s, although against all odds, the streetscape feels surprisingly comfortable.
What you didn’t show in your picture are the arcades that stretched out from either side. Unlike some of the other, more imperious stations, the entrance was part of an otherwise humble streetscape that sort of erupted into the decadence of the station. It’s a nice fusion of the gateway with the commercial storefront that suits railroads well.
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Just a quick toot of Seattle’s horn - we managed to hang on to King Street Station (though some uglify-ing things were done over the years - especially inside). We are now in the process of rehabilitating it - new roof, restored clocks, seismic upgrades and a return of the original ornate ceiling + much more (provided funding can be kept/found)! It’s going to be great once it’s done.
Background from the website: Opened in May 1906, designed by Reed and Stem, the architectural firm responsible for New York City’s historic Grand Central Terminal. The station is served by Amtrak long distance rail, Sound Transit commuter rail, and Amtrak intercity buses. In addition, it offers convenient access to local and regional buses and, in the future, link light rail and the Seattle Streetcar.
More at: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/kingstreet.htm
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Rockfish-
apparently it was Vincent Scully who said it
“Comparing the new and the old Penn Station, renowned Yale architectural historian Vincent Scully once wrote, “One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat.” This feeling, shared by many New Yorkers, has led to movements for a new Penn Station that could somehow atone for the loss of an architectural treasure.” -Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station_(New_York_City)
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Rick -
Thanks much — added that detail at the last moment, trusting my Midwestern geography more than I ought to have.
Big fan of the Blueprint series.
-Jebediah
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
[...] recent post by the blog The Infrustructurist says that”what replaces a well designed and centrally located rail depot can is rarely of [...]
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:30 pm
[...] Penn Station and replace them with, well, Madison Square Garden. Today, Infrastructurist examined 10 train stations along with an endangered one that faced the wrecking ball during the Twentieth Century. How and why city planners decided to [...]
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
There are many stations, both large and small, which could be added to this list. And there were many close calls; stations which nearly bit the dust, but have survived, such as Grand Central Terminal in New York City. A generation which was relatively young and powerless in the 1960s when all this destruction took place has done much to rebuild and restore what was lost back then.
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Will there be a follow-up column for cities west of the Mississippi River, or are there just not many examples in the Midwest and West? I believe all 11 on the list were in the eastern 1/3 of the country.
In Minneapolis/St. Paul, the St. Paul Union Depot is still standing, but not used for train service. There are tentative plans of restoring passenger rail service to the station. The Minneapolis Great Northern Depot was torn down in 1978, just a few years after Amtrak service was moved to the (dreadful) Midway station, which is still used today.
Fargo, ND, had two (one for UP and one for BN I believe) depots. Both are still standing, though neither is used for train service. The Amtrak station is like 200 feet away from one of them though, on the same tracks, but the Depot is privately owned, and has been used as restaurants through the years. The other depot is used as the Parks Dept. offices, and is still on active tracks, but no passenger trains use them.
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
JeffinMD: Thanks. I’m glad I sort of accurately remembered the quote!
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:25 pm
John,
Yes, I think we’re going to do a second round on this before too long.
-Jebediah
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:03 pm
That Memphis station was a beauty…what a shame.
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Central Station in Chicago is not a vacant lot. There are multiple highrise buildings on that site.
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Ok I have a question about the stations that are still standing in many big cities. Chicago still has Union Station and NYC still has Grand Central Station and D.C. has Union Station, Philly with the 30th street station, Cincy with Queen City Terminal and whatnot. I know Cincy will not be able to use Queen City Terminal for HSR or even commuter rail between Columbus and Cleveland. But will Philly and Chi and NYC be able to use their stations for HSR? Modern stations are cool, but the classic stations in these cities are priceless. Going out of a traditional train station really adds to the experience. Will they be able to use them?
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Jeremy -
It was at Roosevelt and Michigan, wasn’t it? On east side of Michigan? We did this in internet time, but my understanding was that a substantial portion of the footprint remains undeveloped and is shown in that sat pic I included in the piece.
Here’s a map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=41.86793,-87.62207&spn=0.01,0.01&t=m&q=41.86793,-87.62207
If incorrect, please let us know.
Thanks,
Jebediah
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:58 pm
http://content.mpl.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2FRememberWhe&CISOPTR=342&DMSCALE=1000&DMWIDTH=4000&DMHEIGHT=4000&DMMODE=viewer&DMFULL=1&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMTHUMB=1&REC=4&DMROTATE=0&x=56&y=358
The Old Milwaukee Depot overlooking Lake Michigan. Turned into a parking ramp. Check link below for parking ramp. Link above for pic of depot.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=r55w9p7p7kf5&style=b&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&scene=5430875&encType=1
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:23 pm
One could add:
San Francisco. The Southern Pacific terminal in San Francisco was unfortunately demolished in early 1980s or late 1970s. A mission style building. The commuter line still went into to sheds. Modest interior but still grand. Demolished and replaced by a trailer park, the train terminal moved a block south in an ugly bus-terminal designed ugly terminal.
The baseball Giants ballpark is now across the street. Too bad it was demolished.
See:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/100478775/
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Many if not most of those stations still exist, just without the grand waiting rooms they could do without. Penn Station is a good example: all of the tracks, and many of the staircases leading from them to the waiting levels, are the same as they were before 1968. It’s darker and less inviting than Grand Central, but it gets you to where you want to go. The job of train stations, airports, and other big ticket transportation infrastructure items is to get people from point A to point B rather than to provide public works for architects.
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Jake-
Union Station in Washington and 30th Street Station in Philly are currently serviced by the Acela Express (as is another great old station that was almost lost- Union Station in New Haven, and also South Station in Boston).
Grand Central will likely never see HSR service, as it is fully leased by the MTA and Metro-North uses it to capacity. It may be a great place for a strictly Empire State HSR service or for service to Montreal, as the Hudson Line up the river originates at the station, though I won’t hold my breath on that ever happening, though Amtrak has used the station in the past.
The Long Island Railroad is currently constructing a new terminal underneath the current Metro-North areas that will connect to the NEC via the Hells Gate Bridge, and this could conceivably offer HSR to Boston, though again, the MTA regards Grand Central as its personal fiefdom for its own use, and with HSR (sorta) at Penn Station there really is no need.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
@Jake - We will be using several old historic rail stations as the city stations for the California High-Speed Rail system. Some of these include Union Station in Los Angeles, the Santa Fe Depot in San Diego, the current intermodal station in downtown Sacramento, and Diridon Station in San Jose.
@цarьchitect - Very familiar with the Columbus site. I think the streetscape on High Street does breakdown just past the Cap and does not connect well to the Arena District. Granted, it’s better than a lot of places, but I don’t think it compels people to continue on. Unless things have changed since 2005. Great suggestion BeyondDC!
Great article (again)!
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:03 pm
[...] shared Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball — 12:00pm via Google [...]
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:20 pm
great post, dont forget san francisco’s station which was demolished in 1974 and the old ‘oakland mole’ train station/ferry transfer
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Mods, could you please delete my post with the broken link? Thank you.
Anyways, Indianapolis is quite lucky we didn’t end up on that list. Our gorgeous Union Station is still standing. It’s way underutilized however, as you board Amtrak through the Greyhound Station. Union Station is solely for conferences and offices at this point.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:31 pm
One last time, here’s the real link. Sorry about this.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Denver’s Union Station will soon see a second life. While it lost its thru tracks years ago, it is about to be revitalized as part of RTD’s Fastracks program that will bring about a half dozen light rail & commuter lines to the station. The good news is that they kept the old building, which is still in good shape. the bad news is that the design of the transportation hub however is half-assed, as city light rail & suburdan commuter trains will be separated by a 2-block walk.
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:18 pm
I believe you are right in terms of location (Michigan and Roosevelt). I always thought it was south of Roosevelt where they have built a number of condo towers. It appears that it was actually just north of Roosevelt, which is now part of Grant Park and not really a vacant lot.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Jeremy,
Yeah, I was pushing the rhetoric a bit there. I was playing a bit with the fact that it doesn’t really *look* like most of the rest of the park. Looks a bit more ragged.
JR
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Great pictures and contrasts. For an example in what can be done with nineteenth century rail buildings, visit St Pancras in London, now the terminus for high speed trains to Paris and Brussels. Quite magnificent.
Here in LA, I find Union Station very appealing in a smaller scale and from a different era.
AS
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:53 am
It’s sad you have so many examples to be shown. In germany we have the same problem. In the 60s upwards every building which survived WW2 did at least die in the hands of some furios architects.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:56 am
[...] too depressing to link to the pictures — eleven beautiful train stations that were lost to the wrecking ball (and what replaced them): Almost like a rite of passage, cities across the country embraced the era of Interstates, Big [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:57 am
You should add Union Station in St. Louis. It’s a mall/hotel now and looks OK, but oh the grandeur that they pitched aside.
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:02 am
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:01 am
Excellent piece!!! better than what all the crap-nn is churning out!
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:20 am
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:40 am
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:47 am
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:13 am
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:14 am
Very interesting, the is one tiny mistake though. When the TD Banknorth Garden was built, it was the Fleet Center. They changed the name when Fleet got bought by Banknorth.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:17 am
[...] Yonah Freemark and Jebediah Reed, of the Infrastructurist, brings us 11 Beautiful Train Stations that fell to the wrecking ball. [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:45 am
I blogged about St Pancras station when it reopened 18 months ago (see http://livingwithrats.blogspot.com/2007/11/platform-for-future.html) - while the restoration is marvellous, much of the surrounding area is still blighted and it’s far from certain what will emerge.
We’ve a long and depressing tradition in the UK too of demolishing historic buildings and replacing them with rubbish. But there are some notable exceptions, and even when the rail services have gone people sometimes find new uses that preserve the buildings: the station at the small town of Richmond in north Yorkshire is a great example: http://livingwithrats.blogspot.com/2009/06/toast-to-social-enterprise.html
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:06 am
For the amount of hard work it can take to keep one of these beautiful old stations alive, check out the site for the Buffalo Central Terminal, where a large group of dedicated volunteers has been working for over a decade to try to preserve, and revitalize, this beautiful landmark.
http://buffalocentralterminal.org/
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:55 am
Michigan Central Depot looks good from a few thousand yards away, but up close it’s a total disaster. Other stations are surrounded by parking lots because of ill-advised urban destruction, but the area around MCD is empty because it never developed in the first place. The tower portion of the building was never even completed. Train service there more or less stopped in the 1950s, and it’s been decaying ever since.
There’s no way it could ever be restored for a reasonable amount of money. And for what? It would still sit in the middle of acres of empty lots. It’s far away from downtown, and there’s no hope for dense development around it when Detroit’s population is shrinking and the city can’t fill its existing buildings. Just let MCD crumble into a graceful ruin.
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:19 am
Union Station in Portland Maine also fits in this category. It was a beautiful old brick and granite structure that fell into disrepair and was eventually replaced in the 60s with a strip mall. Some of the original buildings are still in use, and there are many pictures and drawings and paintings of the old station in the nearby stores.
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:20 am
[...] Beautiful train stations that fell to the wrecking ball. [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:24 am
[...] Infrastructurist has a great article on beautiful train stations that were demolished across the country. Almost like a rite of passage, cities across the country [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:37 am
I’m glad to see you included Rochester. It was the first one I thought of when I read the headline for this post.
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:42 am
[...] Beautiful train stations that fell to the wrecking ball. [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:45 am
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball » INFRASTRUCTURISTinfrastructurist.com [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 am
Having recently endured a ‘long distance’ train ride in the US at an average speed of 50mph it is obvious that the car ‘won’ in terms of transportation. Even more so when you see that train stations were demolished and replaced with interchanges and parking lots. It is such a shame.
Even our somewhat creaking train system here in the UK gets us from place to place faster.
Union Station in Savannah looks like an amazing venue to arrive at. Hopefully some investement in the railways will occur over the next few years as a number of projects seem to be in the offing in the US.
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:54 am
[...] Shamelessly stolen from the blue: Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball. [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:56 am
As much as I’d like to see it, they’ll never save Michigan Central Station. It’s been allowed to decay past the point of no return already. I grew up in Detroit, and the city government’s ambition is to reduce the city in its entirety to a single vast parking lot. The history of Detroit’s civic planning after 1950 is one of grotesque short-sightedness and failure - see the history of the streetcar system there or the city’s treatment of its Motown legacy for more.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:14 am
I agree with all of your examples….but you have it slightly wrong re: Chicago’s Central Station.
I moved into a condo last year and learned after moving in that my building, and several others around it, were built on the site of Central Station. There is a whole community here, so it’s not exactly unused land or an empty lot (like the other Chicago station).
Thanks!
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:15 am
Some good news for re-purposing stations — Albany, NY where the D&H station is a state office building, the NY Central station a bank computer center and the old ferry station a restaurant.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:27 am
Todd,
Where was the old Union Station in Portland located? I know there has been talk about rerouting the line closer to old port, where the narrow gauge tracks are; was it around there? The Portland station right now is a joke.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:30 am
If the photo and the map are correct, it looks as though Central Station is the current site of the Roosevelt Road Metra terminus, which is basically in Grant Park. The station is sunken, and linked to Michigan Ave. by a long walkway (visible in the photo). If you’ve ever walked from the Roosevelt ‘L’ stop to the Museum Campus, you’ve probably seen it - it looks rickety and is a rather sorry excuse for a train station.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:34 am
I’d be interested to see a post along the lines of what Eric and Kyle suggested, featuring beautiful American train stations that still exist. Since living in Europe I’ve been in love with well-done train stations and would love to do a tour of the best in this country.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:43 am
+1 Bubba.
It’s a beautiful ruin, but rehabbing it would be beyond nightmarish. If you can ever get in, you’ll see what I mean. Flooded elevator shafts, bazillions of dollars of marble torn off of walls, water penetration into all the structural elements. It is rotting BIG TIME. It’d probably be cheaper to reconstruct it from scratch.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:50 am
Beautiful!
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:07 am
We are lucky in Cincinnati to have the Union Terminal, it was a close call from what I hear. The Cincinnati Rail Road Club has been a club since 1933, the year the Union Terminal opened, and still meets in the Union Terminal every month.
Unfortunately, if we are fortunate enough to get expanded Amtrak service North to Cleveland we will most likely not be using the Union Terminal due to the immense amount of industrial shipping that the yard is used for.
Great article, thanks!
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:26 am
This is a great resource: thank you!
Have you forwarded the link to Trains Magazine, Classic Trains, and Railfan, etc.? It deserves greater coverage.
BTW, the last time I was in Savannah, the headhouse of the station had been preserved as a visitor’s center.
The problem with railroad station restoation, of course, is that often they become caricatures or touristy “Disney stage sets,” as the Knoxville, TN, station hotel and convention center shows.
Sometimes, it’s best to die with dignity.
Thanks again for a great post.
Roger
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:48 am
I remember a documentary about Robert Moses that covered the Penn Station destruction. There was a great quote in it. To paraphrase (as best as I can remember):
“People taking the train to New York used to enter the city feeling like kings, now they enter like rats.”
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Also Portland Maine’s Union Station - a treasure turned tragedy as it’s now a strip mall.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:22 pm
[...] This is like a sad, parallel history about where we once we that circles back around to the present and how we arrived here. We need not separate the aesthetic from the practical as they once were wed, an example that easy to see at this site showing 11 beautiful trains stations that fell to the wrecking ball. [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Here’s one more worthy example: Chattanooga’s main train depot was built in 1858 and on the National Register of Historic Buildings. It was torn down in the dark of the night by developer Tommy Lupton in order to finish the job before anyone could get a court order to stop it. It’s replacement - the headquarters for Krystal Hamburgers, the white trash of fast food chains!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
This is barely a scratch on the surface of examples of great architecture blasted down in the name of ‘progress’. I cannot fathom why American business is so stuck on bulldozing the ‘old’.
Another prime example with before, during demolition and after links: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smartee_martee/2721500514/
Michigan Central is slated to come down:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2009/06/trains.html
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Agreed, it’s terrible to see those buildings gone. The same thing happen in Milwaukee, it’s horrible, the old train station whas by far supreme…here’s a link the the photo.
Origional -http://www.traintrack.net/Images/Walthers/2943.jpg
In place -http://farm1.static.flickr.com/101/286537207_ea4cf206ec.jpg
Now - http://graphics2.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/nov07/amtrak_111207_big.jpg
So I mean the one in it’s place, horrible. The new renovation, not to bad. Still missing the origional though.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:06 pm
John - Union Pacific has never had a line to Fargo, North Dakota, nor has it ever acquired one. And Burlington Northern was formed in 1970, LONG after those stations were built. I’d bet that the Great Northern had its own station, and the other was used by Northern Pacific and the Milwaukee Road. Also, for some reason the Soo Line never had any routes to Fargo - it was a three railroad city.
Fargo is a city, yes, but I don’t think those stations fit this kind of topic. Both stations look like a small town station on steroids. It’s no surprise, really…Fargo doesn’t really have the “grand” stature like the other cities we’re discussing here, like Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Buffalo, or even Savannah or Birmingham.
But I digress…
By the way, how about the Terminal Tower in Cleveland! They’re pretty lucky it’s nearly impossible to tear THAT one down, eh?
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Add to that list: Columbus (Ohio) Union Station. Designed by Daniel Burnham, who also designed Washington DC Union Station, CUS was torn down in 1976 and replaced by an “Amshack” until Amtrak service itself left in 1979.
Ironically, Ohio is in the midst of starting to revive passenger rail service and a problem faced in Columbus, Dayton and Springfield is a common one… the old trains stations are gone.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Massachusetts Station being or have been revitalized.
I think this really shows what can happen.
Worcester Union Station:
Beginning - http://www.worcestermass.com/places/images/union2.jpg
Disrepair - (1981) http://www.flickr.com/photos/30523348@N04/2893658164/
http://www.worcestermass.com/places/images/user-image-1180062369.jpg
Restored - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbullens/2682737564/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/destinationworcester/3484404060/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/destinationworcester/3484404186/
and it is strictly still used as a train station, with a small bus terminal added to the side. Lake Shore limited daily and the MBTA commuter trains to Boston.
Springfield Union Station:
Beginning - (1927) http://www.cardcow.com/images/union-station-springfield-us-state-town-views-massachusetts-springfield-10381.jpg
Disrepair - (Now) http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbancompass/540767364/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbancompass/540874669/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbancompass/540878717/in/set-72157602074295337/
Definitely not as bad as Worcester, but still needs a lot of work.
The restoration process is set to begin soon.
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:00 pm
@Dan Qualy: I’d be afraid of what would happen if they attempted to take down Terminal Tower. That would be way too much history lost, not just the rail station. Fortunately, with that being such a Key part (*sigh*, I’m horrible) of the skyline, too many people would be vocal about it being torn down.
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:26 pm
If you look at the great cities of Europe you can see how they have been shaped by the history of their architecture. If American ever hopes to have a modern heritage it needs to look at preserving historical buildings and the stories that go along with them. It’s a very, very sad thing to see these places destroyed in the name of progress.
I was glad to see Kyle’s post… it gives one hope.
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Will Detroit not learn? I know that the economy is excruciating but selling off your cultural heritage is something that no amount of money can buy back.
New York made the mistake and still rues it.
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Check out photos of Cincinnati’s Union Terminal. It is now mostly home to two museums, but still an active Amtrack station.
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=cincinnati%20union%20terminal&w=all
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:17 pm
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball: Sad. [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:22 pm
[...] march of progress 23 06 2009 via Boingboing this is a great post about 11 beautiful train stations that were demolished and replaced various eye sores, empty lots [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Being a Southern Californian who has only visited New York a few times, I note with some interest that the demolition of New York’s Penn Station is still a “hot button” issue with many of the folks in that area, apparently including many who weren’t even born when the destruction occurred. Here in the Los Angeles area, we had a 40th anniversary event at our Union Station in 1979, because many were not sure it would still be there for a 50th. With the advent and growth of Metrolink, and the increase in coastal service with the Surfliners, LAUS now sees more trains on a weekday than it did when it was first opened. Add to this the Metro subway running underneath and the Gold Line light rail on tracks 1 & 2, and you have a lot of people coming and going.
Unfortunately, LAUS is one of the lucky few depots to recover from the “bad old days”. One building I saw back in 1977 was the Buffalo NY station that looked like it belonged in a “Metropolis” backdrop for a “Superman” movie. I went there to catch the TH&B RDC train to Toronto and was rather dismayed to see the shabby state of this eye-catching structure. Does it still exist, and if so, in what condition?
A comment on the lamentations about vanished stations: There’s an old saying–”Anything is cheap to the guy who doesn’t have to pay for it.” Another is–”Politics is the art of getting everybody to pay for what you think is important.” Many depots were demolished because the railroads didn’t want to pay taxes on them, or the cost of maintenance exceeded the value of the building. A factor that we don’t have to worry about in Southern California is heating vast spaces in monumental edifices. I was told that at one depot (possibly Kansas City) Amtrak built a temporary structure inside the great depot, something that could be heated and air conditioned for a much lower cost. It wasn’t very scenic, but it did the job for what little passenger traffic was left.
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Vin@10:30,
The old Roosevelt Road station for Metra Electric (nee Illinois Central suburban) service was old, decrepit, and a civic embarrassment. It’s been replaced by now, however, by a modern platform, station head, stairs, etc.
More generally, Chicago also lost the old Chicago & NorthWestern Station house at Madison, Canal and Clinton to a glass Citicorp tower (the original shed and power plant remain, however) and the original LaSalle Street Station, which is now a Metra commuter terminal inside a modern office tower. Dearborn Station’s house was rehabbed and remains active for shops and restaurants.
And the terminals of the South Shore Line’s fallen interurban sisters are today a small parking lot at Adams & Wabash (North Shore Line) and a giant parking garage on Wells Street just north of Van Buren (Chicago Aurora & Elgin). Natch.
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Alan B Said:
“Here’s one more worthy example: Chattanooga’s main train depot was built in 1858 and on the National Register of Historic Buildings. It was torn down in the dark of the night by developer Tommy Lupton in order to finish the job before anyone could get a court order to stop it. It’s replacement - the headquarters for Krystal Hamburgers, the white trash of fast food ch”
Interesting counterviewpoint on Tommy Lupton and Chattanooga from here:
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/06/t-tommy-lupton-developer/
“The Krystal and Tallan buildings opposite the Read House on M.L. King Boulevard and the development that extends south behind them are testaments to Mr. Lupton’s determination to restore life to a part of town that had fallen on hard times.
Once occupied by historic Union Station, the property had fallen into disuse and decay. Mr. Lupton chose to build state-of-the art office space there at a time when detractors said it was a questionable, even foolhardy, venture. Mr. Lupton knew better. The buildings jump-started downtown growth and still serve as prestigious addresses for major community enterprises.”
I’m not saying you’re wrong and Lupton did good, but sometimes there is a reason the past has to go and it’s not a city’s job to subsidize future generations’ desires for aesthetically pleasing architecture in cities they don’t live in.
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Glad to see that several people mentioned Cincinnati’s Union Terminal.
Back in the early 80s (I think), there was talk of tearing it down. Fortunately, they managed to find a viable use for it–the Natural History Museum, plus a Cincinnati museum, children’s museum and an Omnimax. That was almost 20 years ago. Now, it’s thriving and an established part of the city.
This city screws up a lot of things, but thank goodness they got that one right!
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:40 pm
[...] is why this article made me [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:26 pm
The station in use in Atlanta, Brookwood Station, was not a commuter station but rather the first class station. the parkinglot that was union station is now referred to as the pigeon pit.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:04 pm
To all those bemoaining the loss of these “wonderful old” buildings. I’ll tell you what…
every time you think of what a waste it was to tear down that old historic site, or how we should all chip in to restore some old train station it will cost you $10. We’ll put it into a fund and in 1000 years we’ll have enough to restore some historic site.
Let’s face it. Most people using these stations were more concerned with catching their trains and the rest of us rarely get to marvel at the artistic architecture. These pictures show them at the hieght of their usefulness and when they were in good repair. When they were demolished they are out of use, in disrepair and would have cost much more to restore than to replace if there had been a continuing need. Note how most sites have far different uses. They weren’t replaced by train stations but by airports outside the city limits.
Get real! The only people really concerned about this trend are the nostalgic old duffers without a grip on reality and nothing better to do. Their calls for restoration of old buildings is just another attempt to reach into your wallet so they can enjoy the fruits of your work.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:26 pm
What a shame to demolish such beautiful well constructed buildings, shame on us! Our children and grandchildren will not know such beautiful structures.
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:00 pm
We all love the old stations until we have to pay for their renovation.
Detroit’s Michigan Central Terminal has been an eyesore for decades and the area isn’t used by Amtrak. Most if these old buildings are structurally unsound, contain asbestos and would cost 4 to 5 times the cost to renovate than to rebuild as a new structure. In most of the areas such as Detroit they are in blighted areas where a 20 some story building would go vacant even if built. There is simply no market for office space there.
The old stations handled dozens of passenger trains a day. Today most of them handle three of four.
Asking the general public restore these buildings with involuntary tax money is unfair. If you want to see them rebuilt start a fundraising effort of like minded people.
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Central Station (in Chicago) had a terminus just north of Roosevelt, but most of the land south of Roosevelt and east of Michigan was part the central station complex. It is now very well developed (I’m typing from a highrise that is a block south of Roosevelt on Indiana. ). The actual land the terminal building was on is not Grant Park/Roosevelt road.
It probably could have been kept without impeding the other development.
the lot where Grand Central in Chicago was still contains a lot of its remains, giving it a kind of hilly look.
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:48 pm
The greatest generation destroyed the train and rail infrastructure in this country in favor of the automobile. The next greatest generation needs to get the Trains back on Track!
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Thanks, Bob Davis, for making a critical point.
My first reaction when I saw this post was to link to it on my Facebook page. I also lament the loss of these great — well, in some cases very large and grandiose, if not necessarily actually great — civic works of sculpture. I come to work, in fact, through the new Penn Station every day, and work in 1 Penn Station, overlooking the non-entity of a transport hub as well as the depressing Madison Square Garden.
To a large extent the manner in which this compels so many of us is a testament to what we _really_ think about a world ruled solely by utilitarian concerns and the sort of callous attitude toward the spiritual importance of environment on human existence, in the cities as well as anywhere else, displayed by Alon Levy above. God help us in the soulless, bottom-line libertarian future that so many think they want. Ironically, this worldview utterly dispenses with the long-term utility that comes from civic pride — the decline of which, from the 1950’s on, surely is linked to the decline of humanity in the urban architectural landscape.
And yet: Many of these buildings were and are obsolete, and the cost of their respective upkeep, utility expense, restoration or retrofit, relevance to modern transportation need or all of the above would constitute a preposterous budget item for almost any public entity saddled with such costs. Rail transport, despite its highly romantic appeal, is great for everyday commuting but is seldom of the choice of travelers from afar, for whom air travel — even in its own diminished state — is a clearly superior choice. Most other travel remains, in America, highway-based, because Americans want to go where they want, when they want and with whom they want, and they want to get back home that way, too.
In addition, the cheap labor and lax or nonexistent building, fire, safety and access standards of the nineteenth century, which made it possible to erect and use these behemoths, are truly relics of a different age. So who is going to foot the bills to maintain these buildings as obsolete white elephants? Or is someone here volunteering for a special tax assessment so Detroiters can stare at their irrelevant grand terminal?
There’s the facts, Jacks.
I sure wish we had the old Penn Station here, though.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:38 pm
[...] the full article here. (11 such beautiful structures gone …) Tagged with: lost heritage, old train stations, USA [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Great post! The rest of my day was “shot” after receiving my son’s email suggestion that I visit it. Thanks especially for the bird’s-eye view of Savannah Union Station. I had never before properly appreciated how the unique octagonal waiting room related to the exterior. The best surviving parallel I can think of for the waiting room is the interior of the B&O Museum’s roundhouse in Baltimore. It was a relatively vast open space, broken only at floor level by an enormous circular steam radiator in dead center (relatively small boys notice such things) and the brass rail straight down the middle separating “White” and “Colored” (at least we all breathed the same air and sweated from the same summer heat). In reality, none of the three historic Savannah stations (three if one counts the Tybee RR, per the dash signs of the E&W Loop streetcars) were high-speed rail candidates. All were stub terminals, operationally oxymoronic for high-speed through trains.
I would offer the following notes– Correction: R. C. Parker is not quite correct regarding the Savannah Visitor Center — that is in the headhouse of the Central of Georgia station, not Union Station. Both were on West Broad Street. If only one could be saved, and you’re an industrial archeologist, saving the Central of Georgia station was a real coup. An antebellum station opened in 1860, it comes complete with trainshed, support buildings, and brick railroad viaducts (I need to renew my circa 1950 acquaintance!). Nominations for great stations in daily use, restored but with paint beginning to peel (don’t they know roofs must be tight and steel and iron must be regularly painted?): Baltimore’s Penn Station (1911) and Wilmington’s Pennsylvania Station (1908). Additional kudos: To Seattle, which in addition to its active King Street Station (1906), has saved next-door Union Station (1911) as well. Nomination for most earthquake-challenged station: Portland, Oregon’s iconic Union Station (1896), served by several trains and tastefully maintained cosmetically, but in grave danger for lack of horrendously expensive seismic retrofitting and mechanical/electrical system upgrading. Lost and half-lost stations for the list: Completely lost to a shopping center, the B&M Station (1885) in Concord N.H. The double-bay trainshed was relatively modest, but the headhouse was grand, with a huge stained-glass window in the waiting room and a Concord Coach on display smack in the middle. Half-lost, think it was St. Albans, Vermont; the headhouse may remain, but the barrel-roofed trainshed is long gone. The trainshed roof used covered bridge technology to cover through and secondary tracks and platforms, probably an arched version of the Towne Truss. The only extant equivalent would be the roof structure of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. I only saw it once, at night (in 1951), without full architectural appreciation. Many treasures lost! (Dates courtesy of Wikipedia, except Concord; http://www.nashuacitystation.org/?article=concord)
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Great post…the before and after pictures are heart-breaking. Of course, some of the responders correctly point out that saving all of these old buildings would require massive funding that the US–and let’s face it, the total costs would have national impact–could scarcely afford. (To be sure, there are many things we can’t afford but do them anyway!)
One suggestion would be to encourage funding that would ensure that the most strategically valuable building be kept in each city, taking into account considerations of both architecture and location.
Portland, Maine is a case in point. Stationless now, it once had two: the Maine Central’s Union Station and the Grand Trunk’s little jewel close to what’s now the Old Port area. Of the two, the latter might be more strategically valuable today.
Of course, if a station could be saved while relying entirely on private investment, that would be something else again, although even here, the national impact would be significant.
I’m not an urban planner, so the above may have no merit whatsoever!
In the meantime, thanks again.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:24 pm
[...] 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To the Wrecking Ball…. ……and the crappy stuf that replaced them! Discuss…. Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff Built I… [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:36 pm
All these marvelous old buildings suffer from the same problem as it relates to high speed rail - they’re in the center of the city.
High speed rail is only high speed when it doesn’t have to come into the middle of high density urban areas where it MUST slow down. Look at the Acela - it operates at half the speed it could because it isn’t possible to improve the trackage to allow it to go faster in the dense northeast. The travel times from Boston to NY to DC are pretty much the same as they were in 1900. Some progress…
Picture a train operating at 150 mi/hr right in Manhattan. Imagine the complaints, the whining neighbors, the save the tunnel bats protesters…
June 24th, 2009 at 12:01 am
[...] "Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff B… (tags: Rail) [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Wow! Dallas got something right for a change!
http://www.unionstationdallas.com/#
Ours is used for Amtrack, Texas Commuter Rail to Ft. Worth, DART rail light rail system, as well as special event rooms for parties, weddings, etc. and office space as well.
The city spent $23M last year in renovations.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:04 am
[...] 2 – Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball » INFRASTRUCTURIST [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 2:29 am
Ron Coleman, you’re the first person I see use the word spirituality to mean “preserving train station facades.”
June 24th, 2009 at 2:49 am
[...] but before we can move forward, we must look back. The Infrastructurist runs down a list of eleven classic train stations that were demolished and replaced by unadulterated [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 5:20 am
[...] Infrastructurist has a terrific then-and-now photo essay on beautiful American train stations that fell to the wrecking ball. Write Yonah Freemark and Jebediah Reed: “One lesson of this [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 6:36 am
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking … [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 8:28 am
This is interesting and sad, but I wonder to what extent government is responsible. Of the 10 outlined above, two were torn down for government (a “government building” and a USPS expansion); one is an ugly Amtrak (government), which makes me wonder if the previous one was too costly to maintain; the two in Chicago seem to be in prime locations, but Chicago taxes and pay-to-play politics might have hindered redevelopment.
Thank goodness Cincinnati’s spectacular Art Deco wonder the Union Terminal isn’t here, although I recall a period when there was talk of it being torn down.
I live in Tokyo, where normal people must get around by train or, as you move out from the core, by bus. It’s too dense to drive and costly to park. Yet a number of train lines (including all the “bullet trains” excepting the Osaka-Tokyo one) lose money and Japan Rail has been closing a few lines in rural areas. Most stations are quite ugly but they are basically malls where all kinds of transactions go on.
My guess is a slow shift to resurrecting interurbans in the US. Unless, as in my former US city, the tracks have all been pulled up and sold for scrap to cater to the mountain bikers, greens, and others who backed the “rails to trails” program. Who has the money now to buy and lay tracks?
June 24th, 2009 at 9:30 am
[...] as long as I’m on the topic of old buildings, check out these photos of beautiful old train stations that have been demolished, and the ugly pieces of shit that now sit in their place (via [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Wow! What an amazing written and sadly poignant article.
A couple of these I had not been aware of until reading this. Thank you for that.
One breathtaking station that could have easily fallen victim is the Buffalo Central Terminal. Thankfully, many concerned individuals jumped up and seem to have saved the day.
Alas, in Canada we fight this fight every day and lose all too often. I’m digging in with the York Street Station in Fredericton though.
I’ve fought this fight for 6 years. I’m not giving up yet, no matter how disheartening it becomes.
http://ca.geocities.com/friendsoftherailway2004/Fredericton.html
June 24th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Some more GOOD newzzz!! Fortunately Hoboken, New Jersey’s more than 100 year old Beaux-Arts Lackawanna terminal is still standing. Plus the demolished clock tower was replaced during a recent renovation.
Thank you for an excellent post.
June 24th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Alon, you must get out more!
June 24th, 2009 at 10:49 am
[...] We ruin everything beautiful don’t we?? Amazing train stations demolished and what’s in THEIR [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 11:10 am
[...] first reaction when I saw this post on a blog called Infrastructurist (looks very cool) (via Boing Boing) was just to link to it on my [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Thankfully - we in Cincinnati have the good fortune of STILL having our Union Terminal. Spectacular “Half-Dome” structure built in the 1930’s, and later, thanks to prominent businessman Robert Lindner, the structure was saved from demolition. Now home to the Cincinnati Museum Center, it is an amazing walk through history of the trains, wartime, regional history and the importance of having such a transport hub in the Mid-west. Amtrak still runs a modest passenger rail schedule. One of many historical structures that thankfully remains in the Queen City.
An Art Deco-style, Cincinnati Union Terminal Includes Omnimax Theater, Natural History & Science, Cincinnati History and Cincinnati Historical Society ( a gift shop and ice cream parlor offer a pleasant stop.) The walls of the parlor are covered with Rookwood Pottery tile…
To see some pics, visit
http://www.cincymuseum.org/
or this:
Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Museum_Center
June 24th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Station buffs may enjoy this from the Cincinnati Union Terminal/Museum Center website:
“Originally built in 1933 as the Union Terminal train station, the building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977. Union Terminal stands on a prominent location one mile northwest of the city center. Visitors approach the 10-story, arched, limestone and glass facade of the building from the east through a quarter-mile plaza. The dome is flanked on either side by curving wings. An illuminated fountain, cascade and pool lie in the foreground center. On either side of the main doors, Maxfield Keck’s bas-relief figures symbolize Commerce and Transportation. In the late 1980s, the building was renovated and then reopened as Cincinnati Museum Center in 1990. It was recently named one of the top 50 architecturally significant buildings in America by the American Institute of Architects.
While Union Terminal is perhaps the most recognizable and treasured building in Cincinnati, a recent tour reveals damage and needed repairs like masonry cracks, plaster damage, rusted steel and other problems. Water infiltration over time has caused the problems. The way the original roof system and parapets were designed and built in the 1930s, has caused leaking. The repair work to the building is very costly, but the damage will only get worse and more expensive if not addressed soon. Check out the video.”
June 24th, 2009 at 11:37 am
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff Built I… [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 11:53 am
The South Loop - Central Station area has tons of buildings. I’m currently writing from the 18th story of one of them! There’s tons of development in this area and the primary developer has named their buildings Museum Park at Central Station. (http://www.museumpark.com/home.asp)
The image you posted is now park of the Southern Edge of Grant Park, its actually were everybody takes their dogs for walks. There is a marker that says that the Grand Central Station used to be there; however, across the street the Museum Park building complex also claims that they are on the site of where Central Station used to be. Based on reading this wikipedia article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Station_(Chicago_terminal) ) the station used to sit in all of that area…
hope that helps!
June 24th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I think the Detroit station is going to be reused as a new police headquarters, retaining the building.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Misery loves company: This post should have included the Alvarado Hotel and train station in Albuquerque, a beautiful place that the Santa Fe Railway tore down in 1970. Good post about it here: http://www.examiner.com/x-1972-Albuquerque-Travel-Examiner~y2009m3d10-Albuquerques-Alvarado-Hotel–the-new-exhibit-at-the-Albuquerque-Museum-of-Art-and-History
June 24th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
It’s not quite accurate to say that Grand Central Terminal would have been “demolished” — defaced is more like it. The plans were to construct a multi-story building designed by Marcel Breuer on top of the station.
http://www.nypap.org/archives/110
June 24th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Kyle; Portland ME Union Station was at the west end of Portland, SW corner Congress and St. John Sts. There is an ugly strip mall on the footprint of the Station. The beautiful Maine Central RR office building still stands at the south end of the station (now strip mall) parking lot.
The Grand Trunk RR Station was on the waterfront, east corner of India and Fore Sts. Again, the GT office building is still there on the same block of India St., at the north corner of India and Commercial Sts.
June 24th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Glad that I’m old enough to have seen most of these outside the south. Yes there are a lot that could be added and in many cases the old stations are not so well suited for today. The MC station in Detroit was placed to facilitate service to New York via Canada. The NYC made a lot of profit from Grand Central in New York and hoped to have their new stations in the WWI to the Depression replicate that success (stations line MC (really no choice) Buffalo and Cincinnati all reflect that) Birnham only did the High Street facade (seen the post card view) and the over the tracks concourse in Columbus. As a kid I stood on the radiators watching trains come in and out through giant windows. Much of the High Street entry was gone by the late 40’s and the 100 year old barn connected the two. Up the street a few blocks north the the bridge over I-670 has a pleasant reminder of the street shops once by the station. I miss the Italinate Dayton Ohio station that had most of its functions relocated under the tracks when they were elevated as a much bleated effort going back to the 1913 flood. The building came down later to create a street for better traffic flow.
In Europe there are many beautifully restored old stations, but there the problem is often how to expand for the vast growth in traffic.
June 24th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Sad.
This is what happens when the wrong buaerocrats are given authority.
June 24th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I would like to point out Kansas City’s Union Station. It was left in a state of abandonment and disrepair for decades until it was revitalized and turned into a hub for tourist activity in downtown KC. It has been fully restored with a science center for kids, restaurants, and a theatre. Just goes to show what a community can do when it cherishes it heritage.
http://www.unionstation.org/
June 24th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Even our friends in England have some sad tales: My wife and I did a “loop” trip, starting at Kings Cross in London (the station made famous by Harry Potter and his adventures), staying a few days at York, then going through Newcastle, Carlisle, Lancaster (from which we did a side trip to the Isle of Man), and winding up at Euston Station. All the stations except the last were wonderful relics of the days when Victoria was Queen and the sun never set on the British Empire. My reaction to Euston was “looks like a grocery warehouse”. So, even where structures built by the Romans still exist, ugly modern buildings may be found. (there may be a back-story about Euston that I don’t know–perhaps the original was damaged beyond repair during the Blitz)
June 24th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
[...] Infrastructurist has catalogued the 11 greatest train stations to meet the wrecking ball (pictures and [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I work in historic preservation (as a consultant) every day. Believe me, it’s not just beautiful old railroad stations that we lose constantly. The erosion of our cultural heritage and its replacement with worthless crap is part and parcel of the long-term, relentless race to the bottom in which our country is engaged. Enjoy character, quality, and livability while you can — the tsunami of Wal-Marts and McMansions continues unabated.
June 24th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
[...] And a photographic tribute to the old Penn Station (and many other stations, now replaced by parking lots or just…lots). [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
[...] The built environment of pre-war years makes me feel like a medieval scholar marvelling at achievements of the ancients. http://ur1.ca/68hp [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
[...] Here’s the link to the great post. [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Maybe it’s time for some serious re-examination of our national priorities.
It’s certainly true that building and maintaining these grand monuments can be very expensive.
On the other hand, consider that we Americans spend about *half* of our annual national budget on … the military. It’s hard to believe, but our total annual military expenditures are about equal to that of the rest of the world COMBINED.
So the next time someone laments the terrible, onerous cost of maintaining civic jewels that are so important to our urban and national cultures, maybe we ought to balance that against, say, the annual operating cost of just one of our nuclear carrier battlegroups.
June 24th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
[...] is why we Americans are always keen to build more parking lots. Sometimes that means we have to knock down beautiful train stations to make way for gravel parking lots. Sure it might seem like a tragedy, but hey, we have cars now, what do we need train stations for [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
that’s because you people have no sense of history. i’ve travelled acress 3 US states, and have not seen a building that looks older than about 20 or 30 years (excepting a very few old city buildings) .. you tear everything down and build crap in its place. all that new money. goes to your heads.
June 24th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
The quote is:
“once we strode into Manhattan like kings, now we scurry in like rats.” Not sure who said it.
June 25th, 2009 at 7:26 am
[...] Infrastructurist gives us a look at 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff Built In Their Plac…. [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 8:34 am
[...] Infrastructurist has a great post examining some of the country’s most beautiful train stations that were demolished to make [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 9:47 am
That is how it goes, someday when airplanes are replaced by some new technology for passenger travel. All the airports will be torn down for something else.
you can’t fight the future, it will come no matter what you do.
June 25th, 2009 at 11:18 am
[...] « Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff Built I… [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
[...] ever happened to that architectural wonder? Infrastructurist has a cool photo essay of 11 train stations that were torn down and [...]
June 26th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
When air travel becomes too expensive for all but the wealthy, and massive airports serving the “Greyhound buses with wings” traffic are as obsolete as many downtown train stations became in the 50s and 60s, are there any air terminal structures that will stir the same sense of loss as New York Penn Station?
June 27th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Chris mentioned the ROCHESTER: NY Central Railroad Station.
When I was VERY young, my brother and I managed to walk into that terminal. It was abandoned by then. The interior was awesome!!! Vaulted ceiling, arches, just beautiful. Still remember it to this day…..
June 28th, 2009 at 4:14 am
30th Street Station in Philadelphia is rather nice. The destruction of the original NYP was mostly due to the fact that the fools hadn’t discovered sand-blasting - they thought it was an ugly building because the years of soot had made it black. It’s interesting to note the rise and fall of commuter rail networks in places like Pittsburgh and Cleveland. These days, the best remaining commuter rail networks are New Jersey Transit, the Long Island Rail Road, Metro North (North of NYC), SEPTA (Philly), and MARTA (Maryland). There are dozens of lovely old commuter rail stations in New Jersey that date back to the 19th century in places like Madison and Princeton.
June 28th, 2009 at 8:55 am
DEAREST AMERICAN BROTHERS IN DESTRUCTION,
YOU CERTAINLY HAVE ADOPTED OUR MODEL OF RAZOR SHARP OFFICIALLY MANAGED VANDALISM!!!
MY DEEPEST CONGRATULATIONS !!!
YOU DONE BETTER THAN US IN RIO DE JANEIRO, FORMER CAPITAL OF BRAZIL !!!
OUR LAST NATIONAL MONUMENT DESTROYED (AS FAR AS I KNOW) WAS THE MONROE PALACE, FORMERLY OUR NATIONAL SENATE, BEFORE IT WENT TO BRASILIA THE NEW CAPITAL OUT THERE, “WHERE THE SMILE DWELLS A LITTLE LONGER” AS YOUR POET WOULD SAY…
MONROE PALACE WAS BUILT AS THE SIEGE OF MOST GLORIOUS AMERICAN STANDING IN OUR 1922 WORLD EXPOSITION.
THE OFFICIAL EXCUSE FOR ABATING IT WAS THAT OF A METRO LINE IN CONSTRUCTION UNDERNEAT IT; AS YOU KNOW RIO HAS THE WORLDS’ SHORTEST LINE AROUND THE WORLD, AND IT WOULD HAVE TO CIRCLE IT AROUND THE FOUNDATIONS, WHICH WAS TO BE AN ENORMOUS COST TO STATE OWNED METRO COMPANY…
AS EVERY THING HERE MOVES AT THE PACE OF A DESEASED DONKEY, THEY DID SAID CURVE BELOW, THE LINE WAS BUILT AND LATER CAME IN THE MANIACS AND DESTROYED THE PALACE. WITH NO EXCUSES WHATSOEVER… NICE PEOPLE…
WE ARE PROUD OF HAVING SUCH A COMPANY AROUND THE WORLD OF OFFICIAL DESTROYERS OF WHAT THE MOST INANE PERSONS WOULD THINK OTHERWISE.
CONGRATULATIONS. HOWEVER I THINK THAT THE RUSSIANS, AS FAR AS I SEE IN LOCAL PICTURES ARE ATTEMPTING TO GET THERE AS WELL, AT LEAST IN QUANTITY.
ALAS, JOIN THE CLUB OLD BRITANNIA AND FRENCH NATION, AND THE REST… YOU ALL DESERVE BEING TAKEN AS IDIOTS… DON’T YOU??? ARE WE ‘AMERICANS’ THE ONLY ONES AROUND???
June 28th, 2009 at 11:50 am
San Antonio turned the old SP “Sunset ” Depot into “an entertainment and
resturant mecca” but @ least its still there and the Amshack that replaced it is
sort of looks like a similar style!Others in Texas include Ft. Worth,(the old T&P
is used for Metro and offices, is still nice), and the At&SF next to the new
not too bad AMTRAK/Commuter rail station but als will probably turn into a
parking lot soon!EL Paso and Dallas kept their old stations which while not
grand were better than anything “new”!All in all guess places like St. Louis
which turned the grand Union Station into a mall @ least didnt knock them down!
I was lucky as a lad to see NY Penn station and Grand Central was saved too
as so many nhave said!great post,MORE and MORE PLEASE!!!!!!!!
June 28th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
It is so important that we keep our Buffalo Central Terminal. http://bit.ly/centralterminal, restoration has begun but it is such a long road.
June 28th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Ed the Head is right on. yeah it sucks these buildings have gotten torn down but if they are just sitting there collecting dust, costing $$ to maintain. PLUS that crappy arena they built in NYC just happens to be THE MOST FAMOUS BASKETBALL ARENA IN THE WORLD!
June 28th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
[...] 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff Built In Their Plac… from The Infrastructurist [...]
June 28th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
I need to make some minor correction regarding Boston North Station.
When our first North Station was demolished, it was replaced by a building that contained the first Boston Garden and second North Station. That in turn was demolished and replaced by the current building that contains the second Boston Garden and the third North Station.
In both of the Garden/North Station combined buildings, the railroad station is at street level, not underground. What’s underground at the current North Station is the MBTA station, serving Green Line streetcars and Orange Line subway trains.
June 29th, 2009 at 10:01 am
[...] out the post “Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff [...]
June 29th, 2009 at 10:10 am
[...] A gallery of gorgeous train stations of the past, together with their less-than-gorgeous replacements. [Infrastructurist] [...]
June 29th, 2009 at 10:31 am
[...] To view more train station demolitions, have a view of The Infrastructurist’s outstanding collection. [...]
June 29th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
[...] sad to see that Penn Station used to be such a stunner! See other 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff Built In Their Plac…. Interesting side note: all three cities I’ve lived in so far (New York, Atlanta and [...]
June 29th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
I live in the shadow of the Michigan Central Depot. I love and respect the history of this great building. Last year I did a photo retrospective comparing 1973 photos to ones in 2008. The before shots (1973) of the lobby and main terminal were provided by photographer Keith Jolley. Through his lens I saw the Depot a way I never had a chance too before, being only 25. What these photos capture, is not only the decay of a building but the decay and erosion of American culture over the past 35 years.
“All Aboard”
A retrospective of the Michigan Central Depot
http://onlyndetroit.com/html/decay/ond-0016-all_abord.htm
June 29th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
people suck! fuggin humans!
June 29th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
[...] Boston Globe and immediately thought it was something that would interest a lot of people here. Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff Built I… Although I am not against development or anything it is sad to see these beautiful structures go. [...]
June 30th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
How about showing some like Baltimore’s Penn Station and Depot which weren’t torn down, or Kansas City’s Union Station, recently revitalized as a science center and rail station too!
June 30th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
This is what you get when accountants are allowed to dictate what is needed. The loss of such fine examples of early 20th century confidence in the future contrasts markedly with our current inabilitry to see any better future than what we once had. Our tastes and desires are now so low that we accept what ever some expert tells us is a viable business case that will produce some utilitarian no style, functional(?) no frills (they cost money) uninspring box that will be removed and replaced by an even less inspiring more functional non entitity building that will produce the maximum return on capital for some hedge funded low risk trashy investment bank that will then onsell it several times over. Eventually some poor sucker in a retirement home ends up with all the risk and owning a sliced and diced interest in a building that has no value beyond its quarterly balance sheet return but will after a short useby period be returned to the scrap heap of architecture and the local land fill site.
Gary
July 1st, 2009 at 2:19 am
[...] architecture - Where have all the…architectureand anything else that matters… 01/7/2009Where have all the… Category: Architektur u. Städtebau Von georgetown um 08:09 …great train stations gone? Fragt sich der Gulliver. Alles abgerissen und mit Autobahnzubringern oder hässlichen Regierungsgebäuden ersetzt. Bahnhof von Atlanta früher und heute: Mehr Bildli [...]
July 1st, 2009 at 10:55 pm
A couple of comments on the great posts that have been submiitted on a great piece:
In response to Jake’s question, Chicago Union Station will indeed be the hub of high speed rail in the Midwest. At some point there will be a need for more capacity for handling trains and people. The proposed West Loop Transportation Center would provide two added though tracks (CUS is essentially an odd combination of two stub end track layouts). Importantly, it would be located on the west side of the station under Clinton Street. This would activate the Great Hall making it more effective than it has ever been in the past.
In response to TAF’s point, without getting into the details, I can assure him that, with some effort, access to CUS can be made pretty fast.
Finally, on kind of an ironic situation, I’d like to point out that Champaign, IL has what must be an absolutely unique situation. It has three generations of its main rail stations extant (as well as the interurban station). The newest one, built in 1999 by the local transit district, under the leadership of Bill Volk, is a magnificent multilevel building that serves as the region’s multimodal hub, and will host high speed rail in the future.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:45 am
This link shows the history of Durham NC’s beautiful Union Station which was demolished for a parking deck.
http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2007/04/union-station.html
The new train station was a covered shelter which resembled a city bus stand until moving into a modular trailer.
To Durham’s credit, they are currently about to dedicate a new train station in a gorgeous renovated tobacco facility which just happened to be right beside the tracks. It still can’t match the architecture and history of old Union Station.
http://www.bullcityrising.com/2009/06/durhams-amtrak-station-dedication-set-for-july-10.html
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Everyone: Good insight on classic rail stations we have lost-I am most familiar with Pennsylvania Station-NYC because my father was a station employee there from the mid 40s into the mid 80s-almost 40 years.
Losing PSNY began the Preservation Movement in the 1960s that saved other stations like NYC’s Grand Central Terminal from alteration or the wrecking ball.
Parts of PSNY were practically dungeon-like-especially the LIRR Concourse which was renovated in the 90s - the pic above shows a little of that section.
I give Amtrak in the late 80s,the LIRR in the mid 90s and NJT in the last 10 years for renovating their own sections of PSNY for the better of all who use it.
The current Boston North Station was a big improvement compared with what was there prior to the mid 80s when the MBTA took advantage of a bridge access outage to rebuild the tracks and platforms and then later replace the bland station area under the Boston Garden when the new Garden was built with its new MBTA Commuter Rail station area.
This shows some classic rail stations we have lost-a lesson of sorts for those who wish to preserve what we still have. I do agree with the stations chosen for this article.
MACTRAXX
July 3rd, 2009 at 2:17 am
God, this makes me want to cry. What a waste…
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:19 am
Cindy mentions Albany, NY’s Union Station above. Here are some photos:
Old Postcard:
http://www.familyoldphotos.com/8c/images/five/NYalbany-unionstation1r.jpg
Contemporary views:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1171/968608260_1a38e65fec.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/115/305814101_b882d4d6b4.jpg
The interior is spectacular though historically inaccurate, a kind of period movie set. It was renovated as a bank headquarters, now occupied by Bank of America.
July 3rd, 2009 at 4:30 pm
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff Built I…. [...]
July 5th, 2009 at 5:30 am
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff Built I… [...]
July 5th, 2009 at 11:24 am
[...] Greater Greater Washington, Infrastructurist names 11 great, demolished train stations. No prize for guessing #1. 6 more [...]
July 5th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
I’m not going to read all 177 comments, but would it be useful to build “retro” versions of one or both of the Chicago stations, since they’re on vacant lots?
July 12th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Man, Penn Station was absolutely gorgeous. It’s a shame.
July 19th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
I agree this is really depressing, but on the positive side one should check out the LA train station. It’s always been one of my favorites and I was anxious to show my husband last year when we visited. To my shock we pulled in on the train shuttle from LAX ( a total bargain, only $4.00 for an across town trip)to a totally different looking terminal entrance around the back then to my relief we went inside to find it was only a new transition building between the new and the old. Clever, this must have satisfied everyone!
July 21st, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Amazing work, guys! Really powerful piece.
It is unbelievable how many beautiful buildings fell to the wrecking ball, only to be replaced by parking lots (literally). In my neighborhood, a beautiful Beaux Arts school was replaced with a parking lot and an elementary school that looks like a penitentiary. Depressing.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Great post just one problem I can see is that Chicago Central Station is now a huge housing developemt in fact the mayor lives there,
July 31st, 2009 at 10:06 am
Did a short report on the status of Detroit’s Michigan Central Station and efforts to save it: http://www.circletheusa.com/2009/06/detroit-station.html
August 1st, 2009 at 9:44 pm
whatever:
“that’s because you people have no sense of history. i’ve travelled acress 3 US states, and have not seen a building that looks older than about 20 or 30 years (excepting a very few old city buildings) .. you tear everything down and build crap in its place. all that new money. goes to your heads.”
Come to Connecticut then; New Haven’s downtown has at least one building from every period of American history going back to about 1700, some belonging to Yale, but most occupied by city or commercial services. Old railroad stations also exist in New Haven, New London, Hartford, Enfield, Berlin, and Wallingford, while stations on Metro-North’s New Haven Line almost all still have their original New Haven Railroad station houses. Unfortunately, Bridgeport’s Victorian station was demolished in the 1960s and replaced with a horrendous Brutalist monstrosity.
August 10th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
How terrible. And no-one has been send to jail for those demolishings?
August 11th, 2009 at 9:14 am
[...] August 11th by Jebediah Reed DiggSubmitA few weeks ago, we looked at some of America’s great train stations lost to the wrecking ball. In long hours of photo research on that story, we happened across quite a few pictures of [...]
August 11th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I’d like to extend “Tim in Wisconsin”’s comment and suggest a corollary story about the stations that survive - 2 candidates being the depot in downtown San Diego, and Union Station in Kansas City.
August 13th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
i didnt see any architectural triumphs there that needed saving.
August 13th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
jj-
yeah, old penn was kind of a throwaway…
August 28th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
[...] behind Madison Square Garden are looking for some help turning public opinion their way so they can put the wrecking ball to old Penn (a poll cited on the show had something like 85 percent of New Yorkers opposed to the plan). They [...]
September 1st, 2009 at 6:07 pm
[...] we claim to be a nation with much pride in our past; There is a good quote about the demolition of Penn Station, and its replacement with a nondescript bunker. The quote is possibly by Jane Jacobs and goes [...]
September 9th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Nice summation of some criminally stupid things done in the name of “Progress.” Besides being a good movie in general, Kubrick’s “Killer’s Kiss” has a permanent place in my collection because of the scene’s shot in Penn Station.
September 11th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Hello Friends, I would like to know how many train stations were in New Orleans in the early 1900s and especially in 1920-1925. American people had not realized until the 70s that they had some treasures. Look how they transformed the Perdido area in New Orleans into a parking lot and a big Town Hall with no interest. Just think a minute of what value would be an area like Storyville, had it not been destroyed. Tourists would gather by millions….
Cordially, Dan, in Paris, France
September 11th, 2009 at 9:12 am
I hope the train station in Detriot MI will not meet the same fate.
September 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Take notice that the mainstream media pays little -if any- attention to public transport/railway stations/terminals/depot issues or needs in the urban abandonment, energy, sprawl or climate/global warming debate…
Next time you view ABC, BBC America, CBS, CBC, CNN, E-Entertainment TV, ESPN, FOX, NBC or numerous local affiliates of these media conglomerates - take note at the continuous and repetitive ads for CARS—AUTO INSURANCE—OIL/GASOLINE—FAST FOOD—MASS RETAILERS—CREDIT CARDS with AIR MILES/—the ‘INSANITY OF SPRAWL’ feeds these propaganda monsters and we ‘buy it every day’—you get what you pay for…so stop buying TUBS OF GAZOLINE!
Get out of your automobile shells and support local/county/state & national public transport issues—speak out—contact your state reps/senators and keep after them-non stop, the special interest lobbyists never sleep—don’t be timid—your USA Constitution gives you the right to speak you mind!
September 24th, 2009 at 8:18 am
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball [...]
September 24th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Here is what’s possible- Spain just finished restoring one of it’s historic train stations, Canfranc. I saw it several years ago when it was in sad shape. Now it is busy with travelers and commerce.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=Canfranc&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=AZK7Su_XEMaJtgfV0Oy0DQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4
September 25th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Wow! Such a response to this topic, I’m afraid mine will get lost in the bunch
I’ve re-created Penn Station, my favorite of these, in Google SketchUp 3D format. If you are interested in viewing the model please follow the link:
http://sketchupisland.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-monopoly-masterpiece.html
I first saw Penn Station in a photo of the waiting room, and thought to myself “I’ve been to New York before, how did I miss this?” Then when I “found” it and realized what was there now (MSG), which I had definitely seen before, I felt awful. I’ve been a fan ever since!
September 28th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
[...] ghost of New York’s old Penn Station will probably never rest. Which is a good thing, because knocking it down to build Madison Square Garden was one of those [...]
October 5th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
[...] magnificent like Grand Central Station and 30th Street Station. Classic train stations have also frequently been ruined and mocked, like New York’s Penn Station (H/T [...]
October 8th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
[...] things, and only miss old ones well after they’re gone. Take New York’s Penn Station, which sure would be more welcoming than that underground maze beneath Madison Square [...]
October 21st, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Not sure which is more depressing: lots standing empty for decades after the teardown of beautiful buildings or unattractive structures built on the former sites of beautiful buildings. At least with the former, there’s literal room to rebuild.
October 25th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Yeah, I feel like in a certain time they just decided to destroy all the pretty things and turn them into garbage. I take the Pennstation daily, such a terrible place. Grand central is still a classic place though
http://www.bloginity.com
November 3rd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Here on the West Coast, we still have a number of old-time rail stations: San Diego (AT&SF), with more trains than ever thanks to Amtrak and the Coaster, L.A. Union Passenger Terminal (aka Union Station) with more trains than ever thanks to Metro Rail, Sacramento (SP, now Amtrak), Portland Union Station, and King Street Station, Seattle. Yes, the Portland station is a little down at the heels, but it is the historic station, and, I hope, will soon be connected to downtown via streetcar.
The old SP station at 3d and Townsend was really not all that grand — when it was built, the plan was to replace it in a decade or two. By the 1960’s, there were only six long distance trains a day (the Daylights, the Larks, and the Del Montes to and from Monterey). I suppose they only kept it because the commuters on the San Jose line needed to have *somewhere* near downtown to catch the train.
November 16th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
You have overlooked a particularly nasty atrocity–Cleveland Union Terminal (which is not a terminal but a station) at the base of Cleveland’s Terminal Tower office complex. Built in the 1920s, the whole building and its station are still there, but after Amtrak moved out and started serving a newer and smaller station on the lakefront, the U.S. Justice Dept. planted its new 22-story federal courthouse right on the footprint of the former interlocking plant controlling the track fan at the western end of the station. They left room for the two tracks used by the local rapid-transit trains, but mainline passenger trains no longer can access this multi-track, below-street-level station with its splendid marble waiting rooml and concourse above. The tragedy is compounded b the fact that, if it were open, CUT would be exactly the kind of intermodal station that all transportation advocates are promoting today, with rapid transit, intercity and commuter rail all in the same facility under one roof and the city most important bus routes converging right outside the front door. Unlike most stations, CUT is located not on the edge of downtown in a dubious warehousing/industrial district, but right in the heart of downtown Cleveland, at the foot of Euclid Avenue where it looks out on the Soldiers and Sailors monument and a lovely array of restored commercial and hotel buildings dating back to the noontide of American urbanism. You come up from track level and emerge into a classical downtown cityscape. Friends familiar with Cleveland tell me that at considerable expense and some additional earthen fill, space for a couple of tracks could be created around one side of the new courthouse, allowing trains from the west into CUT again (the eastern approach was never truncated). Unfortunately, the state DOT and Amtrak plan to keep using the lakefront location, albeit with a larger building once Ohio’s passenger-train network starts developing. There seems to be no serious advocacy movement for a restoration/reopening of CUT.
November 18th, 2009 at 3:38 am
taring down old Penn has to be the worst thing New York ever did, perhaps the worst examel of 60s era urban renal, only toped by taring down a thierd of historic Boston in the 60s.What is a real shame is that Grand Cenral is only for comuter trians, so one travaling from Boston is frosed to use Penn, which is one step above a New York/Boston subway station, 5 steps bellow a washington subway station. Detreit should not make the same mistake, and instead restore the building for a high speed rail link to chicago, or even Taronto. To bad about the old North Station/ Boston Garden. The new one is nice but lacks the history (and is beter then Penn (at least its above ground.)) At least we where able to save Fenway Park.
November 18th, 2009 at 3:40 am
my dad remebers who grow up in New York rembers going to Penn as a kid, on way to Baltimore, or to see his grandmouther of when she would go to Miami, he said old Penn was batter then grand central.
December 12th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Here’s Stanley Kubrick’s Killer’s Kiss with the scene shot at old Penn Station:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5msae4GXNvg
The scene starts at 5:17
January 1st, 2010 at 12:08 pm
[...] first reaction when I saw this post on a blog called Infrastructurist (looks very cool) (via Boing Boing) was just to link to it on my [...]
January 6th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Further to my post of June 2009 I am happy to say that after more than 10 years of neglect and 7 years of my personal battle we have won.
The York Street Station in Fredericton, New Brunswick is being repaired and refurbished as I write this.
Here is a link to a recent article. http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/search/article/907283
Some are unhappy that it will be part of a liquor store.
I am just happy that anything is going to be here and this happened before it was too late.
Tim Scammell, President
Fredericton Friends of the Railway
January 6th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
This seems to be a little biased. I did not fall into that trap. How much money did the writter of this loose because of the loss of the above ground train to the subway.
January 10th, 2010 at 2:22 am
I remember the old Penn Station in NY, the Illinois Central Station in Chicago, and the Union Station in Atlanta…all wonderful memories of epic train journeys in many years gone past. The airline and automobile industries made a concerted effort in the forties and fifties to effectively kill the US rail system in favor of interstate highways and airports. It is a shame. Our rail system is 40-50 years behind those in western European countries, and we have suffered for it. Oscar Wilde said, “All the great adventures in life start in a railway station”…and he was right.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:34 am
[...] Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball [...]
January 28th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
[...] Train Stations Here is a blog showing 11 beautiful train stations and what currently stands there today. It’s kind of depressing. I wish I could’ve seen those buildings as they stood back then. [...]
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:30 am
Sorry, but this comment on Central Station in Chicago, the demolished Illinois Central Station is absurd: “A well-designed depot in the heart of downtown on the shore of Lake Michigan”
That dump was anything but well designed. It was built in 6 months, just in time for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. To go to the tracks, which are below street level, you had to go upstairs first & then downstairs. To go outside to the street when you arrived, first you had to go inside the station.
It was a pedestrian traffic atrocity!
No one in Chicago missed it when it was flattened!
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:32 am
Thanks for putting this together with the before/after photos. Great work!
March 3rd, 2010 at 8:54 pm
[...] ever present symbols and advertisements of the failure of our most recent, large scale projects. Even worse, many inspirational architecture of a preceding era have been demolished. The landscapes of today often serve to deaden the political will and stiffens the conventional [...]
March 6th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
oftentimes i’ve thought that a great piece of installation art would be to project the facade of old Penn Station onto the blank walls of Madison Square Garden at night - haunting and creepy, like a ghostly image back from the past meant to remind all of what was lost
March 8th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
I recently saw what used to be a train station in Milwaukee, on the area east of downtown. The trains rain on tracks under the memorial Blvd, going North. It was a beautiful station, and reminded me of the station in a town in Neberaska. I imagin there are alot of pictures of this station, in archives. I believe the Betty Brim Center, along with the Summerfest grounds, takes it’s place. (Also used to be a Nike missel site, was where the Dan Hoen bridge goes over. ) There was also an airfield for small aircraft there, next to the lake.
April 9th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
This is a great article good work! Love the pictures
April 12th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
BeyondDC has already noted the before and after pix involving Columbus’s Union Station. I’ll add that the station was in the Beaux Arts style and designed by the remarkable Daniel Burnham. The convention center that replaced that beautiful structure was designed by Peter Eisenman and is one of the most unattractive, unwelcoming edifices in this city. But I don’t blame Eisenman. The design may be his but the decision was not. So thanks, Les Wexner, for making that area of High Street look like a south Florida warehouse district.
April 27th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
yes –interesting and depressing article. BUT — happily los angeles’ train station is still here and still beautiful.
April 28th, 2010 at 10:39 am
I have to agree with Kevin from West Herr’s comment above, the importance of WNY keeping the Buffalo Central terminal can not be argued against. Restoration is in fact a long way off from completion, but it seems to be happening.
April 30th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
This is probably one of the saddest things I’ve seen in a while. Especially the ones that have been replaced with highways. Gotta love America I guess.
May 10th, 2010 at 11:24 am
This is pretty amazing!! This blog is very useful!!!
May 28th, 2010 at 9:31 am
[...] of transit, ties communities together. Once upon a time, vibrant downtowns were anchored with a central station, surrounded by shops, business, and not far from residences. With the decline of rail, America has [...]