Kansas City Union Station ( station code: KCY) is a union station opened in 1914, serving

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

, and the surrounding metropolitan area. It replaced a small Union Depot from 1878. Union Station served a peak annual traffic of more than 670,000 passengers in 1945 at the end of World War II, quickly declined in the 1950s, and was closed in 1985. In 1996, a public–private partnership undertook Union Station's $250 million restoration, funded in part by a sales tax levied in both Kansas and Missouri counties in the

Kansas City metropolitan area The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more th ...

. By 1999, the station reopened as a series of museums and other public attractions. In 2002, Union Station saw its return as a train station when Amtrak began providing public transportation services and has since become Missouri's second-busiest train station. The refurbished station boasts theaters, ongoing museum exhibits, and attractions such as the

Science City at Union Station Science City at Union Station is a family-friendly interactive science center that features traveling exhibitions, The Arvin Gottlieb Planetarium, City Extreme Screen theatre, and more than 120 hands-on displays. It is located inside Union Station ...

, the

Irish Museum and Cultural Center The Kansas City Irish Center, formerly known as the Irish Center of Kansas City, is a non-profit organization in Kansas City, Missouri. The Center opened in Union Station on March 17, 2007 (Saint Patrick's Day). The Center's mission encourages kno ...

, and the

Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity The Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity, named after the late Todd Bolender, is located in what used to be the Union Station Power House in Kansas City, Missouri. It opened on August 26, 2011. Following extensive renovations on the histo ...

. Since 2016, it is also a stop on the KC Streetcar.

History

Interior, Union Station (Kansas City) - DSC07829

Interior, Union Station (Kansas City) - DSC07833

Union Depot

On April 8, 1878, Union Depot opened on a narrow triangle of land in Kansas City between Union Avenue and the railroad tracks of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad in present-day West Bottoms. Nicknamed the "Jackson County Insane Asylum" by those who thought it was too large, it was the second union station in the country, after the one in Indianapolis. The new depot was a hybrid of the Second Empire style and

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

. The lead architect was Asa Beebe Cross who "adorned the exterior of the building with intricate towers of varying heights, arched windows framed in stone and rows of dormers projecting from the steeply pitched

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

"; it had a

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

above the main entrance that was in height. By the start of the 20th century, over 180 trains were passing daily through the station, serving a city whose population had tripled during its first-quarter century of operation. In 1903, the lack of room for expansion and a major flood led the city and the railroads to decide a new station was required.

New location

The decision to build a new station was spearheaded by the

Kansas City Terminal Railway The Kansas City Terminal Railway is a Class III terminal railroad that serves as a joint operation of the trunk railroads that serve the Kansas City metropolitan area, the United States' second largest rail hub after Chicago. It is operated ...

, a switching and terminal railroad that was a joint operation of the following railroad lines: * Alton Railroad * Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway *

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...

* Chicago Great Western Railway * Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad * Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad * Kansas City Southern Railway * Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad * Missouri Pacific Railroad *

St. Louis-San Francisco Railway ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...

* Union Pacific Railroad * Wabash Railroad The new location was chosen to be a valley at 25th Street and Grand Avenue used by the Kansas City Belt Railway. It was south of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

, above and away from the floodplain. The architect chosen to design the Union Station building was Jarvis Hunt, a proponent of the

City Beautiful The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the ...

movement. The design was a main hall for ticketing, and a perpendicular hall extending out over the tracks for passenger waiting. The Beaux-Arts station opened on October 30, 1914, as the third-largest train station in the country. The building encompassed , the ceiling in the Grand Hall is high, there are three chandeliers weighing 3,500 pounds (1600 kg) each, and the Grand Hall clock has a six-foot (1.8-m) diameter face. Due to its central location, Kansas City was a hub for both passenger and freight rail traffic. The scale of the building reflected this status. Union Station made headlines on June 17, 1933, as four lawmen were gunned down by gang members attempting to free captured fugitive Frank Nash. Nash was also killed in the gun battle. The Kansas City Massacre highlighted the lawlessness of Kansas City under the Pendergast Machine and resulted in the arming of all FBI agents. In 1945, annual passenger traffic peaked at 678,363. As train travel declined beginning in the 1950s, the city had less and less need for a large train station. By 1973, only 32,842 passengers passed through the facility, all passenger train service was now run by Amtrak, and the building was beginning to deteriorate. The city government of Kansas City wished to preserve and redevelop the building. To facilitate this, in 1974, they made a development deal with

Trizec Corporation Trizec Properties, Inc., previously known as TrizecHahn Corporation, was a real estate investment trust headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It was originally a Canadian company. The name is derived from the initials of the three groups (Tri) that f ...

, a Canadian redevelopment firm. Included in the deal was an agreement that Trizec would redevelop the station. Between 1979 and 1986, Trizec constructed two office buildings on surrounding property, but did not redevelop the station. In 1985, Amtrak moved all passenger operations to a smaller "Amshack" facility adjacent to the old station. By this time, the station was essentially closed. In 1988, the city filed suit against Trizec for the failure to develop the station; the case was settled in 1994. For most of this time period, the building continued to decay.

Renovation

In 1996, residents in five counties throughout the

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...

in both Kansas and Missouri approved the so-called "bistate tax", a 1/8 of a cent

sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...

, part of which helped to fund just under half of the $250 million restoration of Union Station. Renovation began in 1997 and was completed in 1999. The remaining money was raised through private donations and federal funding. The renovations enabled Amtrak to move its operations back inside the main building in 2002. Today, Union Station receives no public funding. Current operating costs are funded by general admission and theater ticketing, grants, corporate and private donations, commercial space leases and facility rental. Union Station Kansas City, Inc. is a nonprofit

501(c)(3) organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of t ...

which manages Union Station and which previously managed the Kansas City Museum. Union Station is now home to Science City (opened in 1999), a family-friendly interactive science center with more than 50 hands-on exhibits; the H&R Block City Stage Theater, a live-action venue with productions for all ages; the Regnier Extreme Screen, the largest 3-D movie screen in the region at five and half stories tall; two restaurants, including Pierponts, an upscale steak and seafood restaurant, and the Harvey's at Union Station; shops, including Rocky Mountain Chocolate, The Science City Store, The Kansas City Store opening in 2011 and Parisi Coffee; the Gottlieb Planetarium, the largest

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

in the area; and various temporary museum exhibits including the internationally acclaimed '' Dead Sea Scrolls'' in 2007, ''Bodies Revealed'' in 2008, ''

Dialog in the Dark Dialogue in the Dark ("Dialog in the Dark" in American promotional materials) is an awareness raising art exhibition, exhibition and franchise, as well as a social business. In ''Dialogue in the Dark'', blind guides lead visitors in small groups ...

'' in 2009, ''Dinosaurs Unearthed'' in 2010 and ''Diana, A Celebration'' focusing upon Princess Diana in 2011. The

has been located in the station since March 17, 2007. The old Union Station Powerhouse building has been renovated by the Kansas City Ballet. It is the ballet's new home and is known as the

since August 2011. In April 2015 and again in 2017, the reality TV show '' American Ninja Warrior'' was filmed at Union Station. The

2023 NFL Draft The 2023 NFL Draft will be the 88th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players. The draft is scheduled to be held in the plaza outside of Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, on April 27–29, ...

is scheduled to be held in front of and partially inside of Union Station in April 2023.

Building

The Beaux-Arts building consists of a Grand Hall with three large hanging chandeliers and ornate ceiling work, and the Grand Plaza, or North Waiting Room. A large clock hanging from the central arch divides the two sections of the building.

Amtrak service

The station is served by four trains per day: * The ''

Missouri River Runner The ''Missouri River Runner'' is a passenger train service operated by Amtrak between Gateway Transportation Center in St. Louis and Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri. The eastern half of the route runs largely along the right bank of th ...

,'' round trip to St. Louis * The '' Southwest Chief,'' departing for Chicago in the morning and for Los Angeles late evening Of the twelve Missouri stations served by Amtrak, Kansas City was the second busiest in the 2015 fiscal year, boarding or disembarking an average 421 passengers daily.

Historical image gallery

References

External links

*
360KC.com, Union Station, 360° visual Internet tours
{{Authority control 1914 establishments in Missouri

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

Downtown Kansas City

Former Kansas City Southern Railway stations Former Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad stations

Former St. Louis–San Francisco Railway stations

National Register of Historic Places in Kansas City, Missouri Passenger rail transportation in Kansas Railway stations in the United States opened in 1914 Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri Tourist attractions in Kansas City, Missouri Transit centers in the United States Transportation buildings and structures in Kansas City, Missouri

Union stations in the United States