User talk:Dmp348/NVC

The National Visitor Center was a tourist information center at Union Station in Washington, D.C. It opened for the Bicentennial celebrations in 1976, but it never was able to attract enough crowds to sustain its operating costs, and it closed in 1981.

Conception

As American railroad travel declined in the years after World War II, Union Station fell into financial and physical disrepair, leading to discussion of alternative uses for the building. In 1958, the B&O and Pennsylvania Railroads considered giving away the station or tearing it down and replacing it with an office building. In the early 1960s, government proposals for turning the station into a cultural center or railroad museum were rejected.

In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Visitor Center Facilities Act into law to create a "central clearinghouse where a visitor can gather information about our many monuments, museums, and Government buildings".

[1]

Opening

In 1967, the chairman of the U.S. Civil Service Commission expressed interest in using Union Station as a visitor center during the upcoming Bicentennial celebrations. Funding for this was collected over the next six years, and the reconstruction of the station included outfitting the Main Hall with a recessed pit to display a slide show presentation. This was officially the PAVE - the Primary Audio-Visual Experience, but was sarcastically referred to as “the Pit”. The entire project was completed, save for the parking garage, and opening ceremonies were held on July 4, 1976. Due to a lack of publicity and convenient parking, the National Visitor Center was never popular. Following a 1977 General Accounting Office report indicating Union Station was in danger of imminent structural collapse, the National Park Service closed the presentation in “the Pit” on October 28, 1978.

Decline and closing

As a result of the Redevelopment Act of 1981, Union Station was closed for restoration and refurbishing. Mold was growing in the ceiling of the Main Hall, and the carpet laid out for an Inauguration Day celebration was full of cigarette-burned holes. In 1988, then-Secretary of Transportation, Elizabeth Dole, awarded US$70 million to the restoration effort. “The Pit” was transformed into a new basement level, and the Main Hall floor was refitted with marble. While installing new ventilation systems, crews discovered antique items in shafts that had not been opened since the building’s creation. The decorative elements of the station were also restored.