Columbus Union Station Arch

The surviving arch is the last remnant of Columbus Union Station, a major landmark designed by Daniel Burnham and completed in 1897 as a classic example of Beaux-Arts architecture and one of only two Burnham-designed buildings in Columbus. It was part of the North High Street arcade, which lined an elaborate viaduct carrying High Street traffic over the railroad tracks and housed shops and offices that created a grand entrance to the station. Dignitaries and immigrants, presidents and vaudeville stars, soldiers and football fans passed through its arches, and in 1919 President Woodrow Wilson gave his first speech on the Treaty of Versailles there following World War I. Columbus's first railroad depot was built in 1850, a second was completed in 1879, and Union Station was the third and was considered the most magnificent. Its demolition in October 1976, carried out amid controversy, helped spur a historic preservation movement in Columbus and led to the formation of the Columbus Landmarks Foundation in 1977. Saved from demolition by Federal Judge George Smith, the arch is all that remains of the station's facade, no longer stands on its original site, and was moved in 1999 from a nearby small park to McFerson Commons by being slowly inched several blocks without disassembly.

Columbus, Ohio · United States