Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 34, 2022

In the hundred-year history of Cincinnati Union Terminal, the station saw use by several railroad companies and retail and museum tenants. The terminal was developed as a solution for Cincinnati's five train stations serving seven railroads. The Great Flood of 1884, one of the largest floods at that time, provided impetus prompting efforts to consolidate services in a new terminal. Construction started in 1928. The station building's site necessitated demolishing numerous structures and relandscaping and repurposing Lincoln Park. The architectural firm Fellheimer & Wagner originally conceived a conservative design, though the terminal's development company urged the firm to hire Paul Philippe Cret in 1930, and the terminal's Art Deco design is credited to him. The design, more modern and cheerful, came along with cost savings over the originally-planned intricate designs. The station opened on March 19, 1933, and initially was not well utilized, as the Great Depression led to declined passenger travel. At the onset of World War II, passenger traffic increased significantly, and three United Service Organizations recreation centers opened for troops to use within the terminal. In the next two decades after the war, passenger use declined significantly. A science museum opened in 1968, offsetting some of the building's maintenance costs until it closed in 1970. Amtrak was formed in 1971 and, recognizing significant operating costs, moved its Cincinnati services to stop at the smaller, new River Road station in 1972. The station's concourse, platforms, and tracks were sold to the Southern Railway for freight operations. The company tore down the terminal's concourse in 1974, after giving the community time to save its artwork. Starting in 1978, a shopping mall was built within the terminal, opening in 1980, though the last tenant left by 1985. Around this time, the Cincinnati Historical Society and Cincinnati Museum of Natural History were looking for new museum space, and led the county to approve funding to transform the building into a museum. The museum center officially opened in 1991, and its renovations spurred Amtrak to return service to the terminal that year. In 1998, the Cinergy Children's Museum joined the Cincinnati Museum Center. In 2016, the county funded an extensive renovation throughout the building, also supported by grants, donations, and tax credits. The cleaned and repaired artwork, the main exterior clock, the plaza and fountain, walls, and roofs. Following a two-year renovation, the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center became an additional museum tenant at Union Terminal in early 2019.

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