The 1933 art deco masterpiece was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977. It is ten stories tall, faced with limestone and is approached from the east through a quarter-mile long plaza with landscaping and a fountain.
On either side of the main doors, bas-relief figures designed by Maxfield Keck symbolize Commerce and Transportation.
I really couldn't tell you which one is supposed to be which.
This building bears the date, 1931. Construction began in 1929 and was completed in 1933. For those of you who study architects, Roland A. w*** of Fellheimer and Wagner served as the principal architect, with help from Paul Philippe Cret. The stations website gives Union Terminal Architectural Information and some history.
You know it's a good sign when door hardware hasn't been replaced; these art deco door pulls were a good omen.
The main doors open into a cavernous open half-dome rotunda. The acoustic ceiling plaster is striking with its arched bands in shades of yellow and orange. The marble in the building is Red Verona. The Rotunda interior dome is 180 feet wide and 106 feet tall.
German-born artist Winold Reiss designed mosaic murals for the station in 1932, two of which still look down on the rotunda.
The 12-foot foreground figures show the roles of people in the developing Cincinnati area. The middle ground shows the evolution of transportation. The abstract background shows landscapes - from the fields settlers found to the city they built. Each mural is 105-feet long and over 20-feet high. This one, to the left of the main entrance as you go in, depicts the settlement of the area from Native Americans through steel workers and transportation from dogs and horses through trains. I find artwork like this is really put in its time context to me by the realization that the steam engine shown is state of the art ground transportation for the time.
The mosaic to the right of the entrance depicts the growth of Cincinnati - transportation from flatboat to airplane and local people from the soldiers at nearby Fort Washington to industrial workers. Reiss used many Cincinnatians as models for this artwork.
The Cincinnati History Museum, opened in 1990, is entered through the old "Outgoing Taxis and Motorcoaches" doorway to your right as you enter the terminal.
Cincinnati in Motion is a huge S-scale (1/64) urban layout of Cincinatti from 1900 through 1940, complete with working trains, streetcars, inclines and interactive computer stations.
It includes this model of Cincinatti Union terminal, which shows the curved "wings" better than do my fathers exterior photos.
Atop the Cincinnati Union Terminal sits a railfan's playhouse, Tower A, home of the Cincinnati Railroad Club.
this is the view looking South from the tower. In the distance, a train crosses a bridge over the Ohio River into Kentucky.
the view to the North, over this truly massive railroad yard.
The track diagram board, which is still on display, worked in conjunction with the interlocking machine and mapped out the workings of the yard below. It's 5 feet tall, 42 feet long and originally contained more than 682 indicator lights.
THERE ARE MORE TO COME WHEN MORE PHOTOS ARE DISCOVERED IN OUR OLD COMPUTER
