Ghost Town

Columbus Train Stations

Columbus Union Station

Columbus Union Station served railroad passengers in Columbus, Ohio from February 27, 1850, until April 28, 1977. The first station building was the first union station in the world.

By Unknown author - Collection of George C. Campbell, Public Domain

In 1851, a site north of Naughten Street and east of High Street was purchased from Orange Johnson by the Columbus and Xenia Railroad (C&X) and Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad (CC&C). A wood barn structure measuring 90 by 175 feet (27 by 53 m) was installed to serve passengers. The station had three tracks for loading and unloading of passengers.

In 1853, the Central Ohio Railroad entered the city and connected to the station. In 1864, the Steubenville and Indiana Railroad connected to the Central Ohio Railroad at Newark, and entered the station on shared tracks. The station soon became inadequate and in 1868 the railroads formed the Union Depot Company to undertake a replacement.

By Unknown author - Collection of George C. Campbell, Public Domain

The second union station opened on February 14, 1875. Constructed of brick, it had a large waiting room, ticket offices and railroad offices at the front of the structure. Seven tracks entered the structure and a long train shed kept passengers dry. In 1875, 42 daily passenger trains departed from the station.

The City of Columbus continued to grow northward with the opening of The Ohio State University in 1870. With the opening of the new union station, thirteen tracks now crossed North High Street. The congestion between train and road traffic became a matter of concern and, in 1875, a $45,000 tunnel was built under the tracks to allow streetcars and horsecars to pass under the tracks. An extra mule was stationed at the tunnel entrance to assist horsecars up the steep grade. The tunnel was 150 feet (46 m) long with 550-foot (170 m) approaches on either side. It was so dark and smelly that only the horsecar passengers, who had no other choice, would use it.

In 1891 the traffic situation on High Street reached a crisis with the roadway blocked for up to seven hours per day by crossing trains. In 1893 the architectural firm of Daniel H. Burnham & Company of Chicago began planning a new facility. A key feature of the new station would be a road viaduct over the tracks, solving the traffic problem on North High Street. In 1893 the old station was handling 112 passenger trains per day.

By Unknown author - Collection of George C. Campbell, Public Domain

The new station opened in 1897 and the arcade was finished in 1899. The arcade was unique to Columbus and consisted of stores and offices built atop the viaduct and facing High Street. An elevated roadway connected High Street to the station to the east. The station increased the number of depot tracks from seven to nine.

The architecture of the station drew on Burnham's experience designing the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. The style was Beaux-Arts Classicism, a late 19th-century style often applied to monumental structures.

In May 1928, part of the arcade was demolished to expand the driveway to the station to better accommodate automobiles.

Toledo and Ohio Central Passenger Station

circa 1907-1911

The Toledo & Ohio Central (T&OC) Railroad Station was constructed in 1895 and was the departure point for William McKinley when he left for Washington D.C to be sworn in as president. It was designed by noted Columbus architects Joseph Warren Yost & Frank L. Packard. In 1900, the T&OC was purchased by the Hocking Valley Railroad and in 1911 the tracks were elevated above Broad Street. Later, the New York Central Railroad gained control and used the station until 1930 when passenger service was transferred to Union Station Service moved from the Toledo and Ohio Central Railroad Station to Union Station in 1930.

In 1956, Columbus was down to 42 daily passenger trains, the lowest number since 1875. Daily passenger trains fell to 21 in 1962, and just 10 in 1970. It was clear that the completion of the interstates and popularity of automobiles would soon mean the end of passenger rail service in Columbus. On May 1, 1971, Amtrak took over most of what was left of passenger service in the United States.

June 1970

In 1976, Amtrak cut back rail service to a single train, the New York-Kansas City National Limited (formerly the Spirit of St. Louis). The restaurant and newsstand were closed.

October 22, 1976 the deteriorating arcade was demolished by S.G. Loewendick & Sons to make way for a new convention center, despite the arcade having been listed on the National Register of Historic Places two years earlier. A restraining order by a judge halted demolition, but it was too late and only one arch of the ornate structure was saved. It remains on display in the Arena District's Dimon McPherson Park directly across Nationwide Boulevard from Nationwide Arena. The land the arch sits on was formerly occupied by the Ohio Penitentiary.

The last train to serve the main station building was a westbound National Limited, which left for Kansas City at 9:17 am of April 28, 1977.

I have collected a number of postcards of Union Station through the years.