Cincinnati Union Terminal Turns 75
Written by Bryan Casteel on May 3, 2008
Some buildings transcend bricks, mortar, concrete and glass to become much more to a community. Cincinnati Union Terminal, which celebrates its 75th birthday this year, is one of those.
Its vast rotunda echoes with the sobs of families sending sons and brothers to war, the cheers of fans greeting world champion athletes, presidential candidates and Hollywood stars, the weary sighs of traveling salesmen returning home, and the hurried footsteps of tourists.
The building’s curvy outline and enormous half-dome made it a beacon to Fritz Steiner, dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas Austin and a University of Cincinnati graduate.
“It is the apex of railroad terminals, like the great railroad stations of Europe,” he says.
If it had not been for World War II, Union Terminal would have been obsolete when it was dedicated on March 31, 1933. It brought seven railroad companies together under one roof but was one of the last major train stations to be constructed in the United States. Other cities had built their united stations decades earlier.
By the time the $41 million project – which included 22 structures and the Western Hills viaduct under its umbrella – was complete, passenger rail travel had peaked in the country.
But Union Terminal survived – barely. Passenger trains dropped from 216 a day to two, and passenger travel was halted in 1972.
The next year, the concourse was razed and in an ironic twist, 14 of its mosaic murals were moved across the river to the airport.
The city of Cincinnati bought the terminal from the railroad companies in 1975. It paid $1 for the building and $1 million for the surrounding 15 acres.
A science center moved in and out.
A shopping mall moved in and out.
Eventually, the rotunda would be filled again with crowds. A bond levy was passed in 1986 to preserve it as a museum site. The Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Cincinnati Historical Society announced they were moving to the terminal, and it opened in November 1990 as the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal.
