Tampa Union Station (TUS) is a historic

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing suc ...

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

. It was designed by

Joseph F. Leitner Joseph Florence Leitner (June 13, 1871 – June 2, 1930) was an American architect whose work includes several rail stations. In Columbia, South Carolina he worked for Charles Coker Wilson (beginning in 1901) for five years. Later he partnered wit ...

and was opened on May 15, 1912, by the Tampa Union Station Company. Its original purpose was to combine passenger operations for the Atlantic Coast Line, the

Seaboard Air Line The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...

and the

Tampa Northern Railroad The Tampa Northern Railroad was a historic railroad line running from just east of downtown Tampa north to the city of Brooksville, Florida, Brooksville in Hernando County, Florida, Hernando County. The line continues to operate today and is under ...

at a single site. The station is located at 601 North Nebraska Avenue ( SR 45). In 1974, as Union Railroad Station, Tampa Union Station was added to the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

and in 1988 it received local landmark status from the City of Tampa. After its condition deteriorated substantially, Tampa Union Station was closed in 1984; Amtrak passengers used a temporary prefabricated station building (nicknamed an "Amshack") located adjacent to the station platforms after the building was closed. Tampa Union Station was restored and reopened to the public in 1998. Today it operates as an

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

station for the ''

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'' line. It also provides

Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transit ...

services to Orlando, Lakeland,

Pinellas Park Pinellas Park is a city located in central Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 53,093 at the 2020 census. Originally home to northern transplants and vacationers, the hundred year old city has grown into the fourth largest ...

- St. Petersburg, Bradenton, Sarasota, Port Charlotte and Fort Myers. Presently, when the ''Silver Star'' leaves Tampa, it reverses direction and retraces its path east to Lakeland before continuing to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. When traveling either northbound or southbound, the train uses a wye to back into the stub-ended station and departs with the train pointing away from the depot.

Design

Union Railroad Station Tampa, Florida from Florida Memory

The station was originally built with eight tracks, although only one is in regular use today (designated as "Track 3"), with adjacent Track 2 also available for use by trains as needed. Amtrak added a new, high-level platform and canopy to Track 3 to improve accessibility, which opened in November 2020. The construction of the new platform resulted in changes to track configurations at the station. Tracks 4, 5, and 6 were removed to facilitate the construction of the high-level platform, although there are plans to restore them in the future if demand warrants. Although some of the other tracks remain in place, they are out of service. Original track bumpers, constructed of poured concrete, are still located at the ends of several of the remaining tracks and at the ends of former tracks. Adjacent to each of these bumpers are concrete planters which have "TUS" cast into them. Union Station consists of the main building which includes the waiting room, as well as an attached restaurant and baggage building. A detached express building located adjacent to the baggage building handled packages and freight transfers from trains to trucks (all structures remain on site with the exception of the express building, which was demolished in the 1970s). At its opening, Union Station's waiting room was segregated (during the Jim Crow era, a wall across the center of the waiting room divided "white" and "colored" passengers, with separate entrances for each). Segregation remained a common practice in railroad stations in the South until it was stricken down by the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...

as a result of ''NAACP v. St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company'' in 1955. However, like many train stations in the South, Tampa Union Station remained segregated to an extent even after the Interstate Commerce Commission's order. Passengers of intrastate trains were still bound by Jim Crow laws. During January 1956, the ''

Tampa Times The ''Tampa Times'', or ''Tampa Daily Times'', was a daily newspaper founded in Tampa, Florida, in 1893. It was started by the consolidation of two newspapers by the Tampa Publishing Company, whose vice president was W. B. Henderson, a leading b ...

'' photographed signage at Union Station wherein the word "Intrastate" had been added beneath the old signage above the entrance to the so-called "colored" side of the waiting room. Full desegregation would not come until later. In fact, the Florida statute providing for segregation on railroads remained a law on the books as late as 1967, although by then the practice had fallen into disuse. A train wash and car repair facility are also on the property. Both of these elements were added by Amtrak in the 1980s when Amtrak formerly maintained a Tampa maintenance base. However, both are largely unused today.

Ownership and management

The City of Tampa's Real Estate Division manages Tampa Union Station for the city. The Division has leased portions of the facility to private tenants, including a second floor office once occupied by the

Pullman Company The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century d ...

. Part of the former baggage building—which once housed the station's restaurant—is leased to a local real estate firm. Another portion of the baggage building (including the baggage storage and scale area) was leased to art gallery Flight 19 from 2004 to 2008, although it is currently vacant. In September 2008, a permanent endowment for the care and upkeep of Tampa Union Station was established at the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay by a group of private donors. Income from the endowment goes to the City of Tampa to assist with the maintenance of the facility. Fundraising efforts for the endowment are on an ongoing basis. Additionally, 2008 saw the founding of Friends of Tampa Union Station, an all volunteer, nonprofit organization which advocates for the preservation and use of Tampa Union Station as both a landmark and transportation asset. The group was founded in cooperation with the City of Tampa and the Florida Coalition of Rail Passengers.

Restoration

Tampa Union Station was acquired in 1991 by the nonprofit Tampa Union Station Preservation & Redevelopment Inc. (TUSP&R) via a mortgage held by CSX, the freight railroad company which was the corporate descendant of its original railroad owners. TUSP&R raised over US$4 million for the building's restoration through grants and loans from sources including the Florida Department of Transportation (ISTEA funds), the City of Tampa (grant funds) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation (no interest loan). At the completion of the restoration by Rowe Architects Incorporated in 1998, the station reopened to Amtrak passengers and the public. CSX donated the station to the City of Tampa that same year. During the course of the restoration, numerous abandoned documents from the Pullman Company, Tampa Union Station Company, and the Seaboard Air Line Railroad were discovered in the station. TUSP&R volunteers sorted these documents and preserved them by archiving them at the University of South Florida Library (USF) Special Collections Department and (in the case of the Pullman Company materials), the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Tributes

The City of Tampa's official Poet Laureate, James E. Tokley Sr., in 2009 authored a poem, "The Epic of Union Station" which commemorates Tampa Union Station's history. Mr. Tokley performed a dramatic reading of the poem at Union Station on May 9, 2009, as part of

National Train Day National Train Day was a holiday started by Amtrak in 2008 as a method to spread information to the general public about the advantages of railway travel and the history of trains in the United States. It was held each year on the Saturday closest ...

festivities held at the station on that day. On May 12, 2012, on the occasion of the station's Centennial celebration and National Train Day, Tampa Union Station was officially added to the National Register of Historic Railroad Landmarks by the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS). Officials of the NRHS presented a commemorative plaque to the station at the event which notes this designation.National Railway Historical Society Historic Plaque Program
/ref> Friends of Tampa Union Station remains active and the station continues to host a Friends group-organized Train Day event in May of each year.

Connections

* Hillsborough Area Regional Transit; #2, #9, & #12.

Bibliography

*McQuigg, Jackson. ''Tampa Union Station''. Dover, NH: Arcadia Publishing, 1998. *
Hillsborough County listings
a
National Register of Historic Places

Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
*
Hillsborough County listings
*
Hillsborough County markers

References

External links

Friends of Tampa Union StationTampa Union Station on The Historical Markers DatabaseTampaGov: Tampa Union StationTampa Union Station Records
at th
University of South Florida
{{National Register of Historic Places in Florida

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

Railway stations in the United States opened in 1912

Transportation in Tampa, Florida

Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach stations in Florida History of Tampa, Florida Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida Union Station 1912 establishments in Florida Transportation buildings and structures in Hillsborough County, Florida