Union Station

Denver's Union Station was built to consolidate the city's rail activity and replace four separate stations serving the boom town. Completed in 1890 in an Italianate style of Colorado rhyolite with sandstone trim, it measured 504 feet long and was topped by a 128-foot tower, making it the largest structure in Colorado at the time. Twenty thousand Denverites attended its opening festivities. The 1880 building was designed by architect William E. Taylor of Kansas City. Its two wings were expanded in 1892, making the station 880 feet long. A spectacular fire, probably caused by an electrical short, destroyed the central portion of the station on March 18, 1894. Insurance covered the loss, and the station was rebuilt under the supervision of Van Brunt and Howe Architects of Kansas City. As railway traffic grew, railroad companies pushed for a newer, bigger station. In 1914, the 1894 portion was razed and replaced by a central three-story Neoclassical section that still stands. During World War II, more than 80 trains a day passed through Union Station; by the mid-1980s there were only two. Its three-story semicircular windows facing 17th Street reflect a history that helped catapult Denver from a dusty mining town to its status as Queen City of the Plains.

Denver, Colorado · United States