herr2ck: The City Beautiful

Photos of arch from March 2026, while photo of station site is from April 2026.

Columbus’s Union Station is probably the best-known work of lost architecture in the city. Designed by famous Chicago architect Daniel Burnham as an example of the nascent Beaux-Arts style and part of the larger City Beautiful movement, it was an attempt to add a sense of dignity to rail travel. Its demolition was a major loss to Columbus’s architectural heritage.

Union Station was located at 370-400 North High Street in downtown Columbus, Ohio. It was bordered by Swan Street to the north, Naghten Street (now Nationwide Boulevard) to the south, 3rd Street to the east, and High Street to the west. The site has since been obliterated by the massive Greater Columbus Convention Center.

History

A view of the first station in 1864. (Wikimedia)

Union Station’s history begins in 1851, when the Columbus & Xenia and Cleveland, Columbus, & Cincinnati railroads acquired the current site. They built a rudimental wooden shed, which was sited among the dirty freight railways nearby, and largely spartan in design except for some ornamental cupolas along the roof that vented the locomotives’ smoke. This first Union Station had some design issues--namely, the fact that only the Columbus & Xenia track was aligned with the station, meaning other trains had to be backed in (which was a very time-consuming process).

Some sources argue that Columbus’s Union Station was the first union station in the world. Before its completion, stations were built, owned by, and served by a single railroad. However, Indianapolis’s Union Station was being planned at the same time, which unified more railways and had a different ownership method more in line with how union stations are operated today. It seems like the nuanced take is that Columbus Union Station was the first union station ever, while the Indianapolis Union Station was the first “true” union station. (Honestly, this whole debacle reminds me of the “first skyscraper” debate.)

Union Station saw more traffic as early as 1853, when the Central Ohio Railroad and Columbus, Piqua, & Indiana Railroad expanded to Columbus and began to use the station. Next, the Steubenville & Indiana Railroad arrived in 1864. With five railroads now being served by the wooden shed, it was quickly determined that a new station building would be needed, and the Union Depot Company was founded in 1868 to coordinate its construction.

1889 photo of the second Union Station. (Wikimedia)

Construction on the second Union Station began in 1873, which was a larger brick Second Empire design. It opened on February 14, 1875. Though clumsily proportioned and awkward in design (it looks like some kind of French chateau plopped on top of a brick train shed), it could serve seven tracks and had much more amenities for travelers, such as a larger waiting room, ticket offices, office space for railroad workers, and a long train shed. It was a massive upgrade over the wood-frame barn of the first station. Upon opening, the station served 42 trains per day.

At the same time, a tunnel was completed to allow road traffic to bypass the 13 railroad tracks that had then crossed High Street, which was causing severe traffic issues. However, the climb up and down was so steep that an extra mule had to be stationed there to assist the horse-drawn streetcars of the time, and the tunnel grew so dark and smelly that the streetcars were the only traffic to voluntarily use it.

Historic photo of the original train shed and station building. (Wikimedia)

By 1891, the traffic situation on High Street was still a tangled mess--the road was often blocked up to seven hours a day by passing trains. At the same time, the city wanted a more modern station that would beautify the streetscape. In 1893, Daniel Burnham’s firm, D. H. Burnham & Company, was commissioned to design a third Union Station. Burnham resolved the traffic issues by building a viaduct above the railroad tracks, and along that viaduct was a massive arcade featuring commercial and office space. Carriages could access the station from an elevated roadway connected to the High Street viaduct. The station’s trackage was increased to nine, and a larger train shed was built along the tracks. The third Union Station opened in 1897, though its traffic had decreased slightly with the departure of the Toledo & Ohio Railroad in 1896 to their Yost & Packard-designed station in Franklinton. In addition, the arcade along High Street was not completed until 1899.

I was having a tough time figuring out what portion of the building was where, so I annotated this floor plan from Wikimedia in MS Paint to illustrate it better. High Street runs diagonally on the west side, which the arcade faces, and the station and shed are centered on the train tracks below.

Burnham’s design for the station was an excellent example of his Beaux-Arts ideals following his master plan for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The portion facing High Street had a monumental arcade with massive Corinthian columns, and the train shed was a beautiful Victorian industrial design with a wide-open interior made possible by massive steel trusses. The station building was simpler and had less detailed masonry, but the pilasters, pedimented roofs, and symmetry make its Beaux-Arts design very evident.

Looking southeast at the High Street arcade of Union Station, c. 1900-1910. (Wikimedia)

Time was not kind to Union Station. As early as 1928, part of the arcade (the taller portion that matched the existing northern arch) was demolished to allow better automobile access to the station building. Three years later, in 1931, the train shed was replaced by a different concourse design.

A view of the arcade in 1974--note its poor condition and missing southern arch. (NRHP listing)

With the increased adoption of the automobile after World War II, which largely supplanted rail travel, traffic through Union Station declined heavily through the 1950s. In 1956, only 42 daily commuter trains passed through the station, down from 112 when the station was built, and a record low since 1875. The hemorrhage got worse, moreover, as this number decreased further to 21 trains by 1962 and just ten per day in 1970. Amtrak would then acquire the few passenger trains that still existed, and they cut service down to a single train (the National Limited between New York and Kansas City), which meant only two trains, one heading east and one heading west, arrived at the station every day. The freight yards north of the station were moved to the new Buckeye Yard in Hilliard in 1969. (Ironically, Buckeye Yard has since closed as well.) By 1973, the arcade was suffering severe water damage, which resulted in the decay of its plaster ceilings. At that time, the only remaining tenant was a cigar store.

The station building and concourse circa 1975. (Wikimedia)

Union Station’s demolition was the result of bungling by the Battelle Memorial Institute. Battelle is a non-profit, but they were sued in 1969 for improper uses of their profits, which led to the donation of $80 million to various causes across Columbus. Part of the fund was earmarked for a convention and transit center at the nearly obsolete Union Station. The transit portion would have been located in the restored Union Station arcade, as well as a new building for COTA offices and buses. However, the station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places that year, as it was still considered in danger of demolition.

Despite the relatively low cost for the transit project, Battelle did not seek any funding from historic preservation agencies at any level, and in October 1976 the trustees instead voted to demolish the station. Their reasoning was that it was an “imprudent use of Battelle’s money,” and no information of the building’s impending demolition was revealed to the State Historic Preservation Office or COTA. The city of Columbus stated that it was aware of the decision but was not involved in making it.

Demolition of the station building in 1979. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

Infamous contractor S. G. Loewendick & Sons, known for razing numerous landmarks across Columbus, had almost demolished the entire arcade shortly after Battelle’s decision was made. Luckily, the Ohio History Connection had acquired a temporary restraining order due to Loewendick using improper procedures while planning the station’s demolition. Amusingly, the preservationists had trouble finding a judge to halt the demolition, as several were busy watching a football game at Ohio Stadium. However, all that came of this was Battelle giving the historical society three months to remove the remaining arch, offering no funding or labor whatsoever. The arcade’s demolition also resulted in the Urban Mass Transit Administration rescinding its funding for the transit hub project.

Union Station’s shoddy replacement--the “Amshack.” (Wikimedia)

Despite the arcade’s demolition, the station building along the tracks still stood, and it continued to operate until April 1977. Amtrak moved the Columbus station to a hastily constructed metal shed further east (by 4th Street and Smith Bros Hardware), nicknamed the “Amshack,” after costs to operate the station for only a single train grew too high. In a way, it’s ironic that the final iteration of Union Station was no better than the crude wooden shed it first occupied. The final blows to Union Station came in 1979, when the remaining station building was demolished in September, and the National Limited being discontinued in October. After that, passenger rail was eliminated from Columbus.

Union Station’s history does not end here, however. There are three more stories to track--the convention center, I-670 and “The Cap,” and the journey of the final arch.

Overhead view of the 1980 convention center (bottom) and 1993 addition (top). (Wikimedia)

I cover the Greater Columbus Convention Center in its own article, but of course, the station was demolished only for an inferior replacement. The first convention center was designed by NBBJ and was built between 1978 and 1980 on the site of the station building.. However, this building immediately had issues with its layout and square footage, and voters then rejected two proposals to replace it. The second phase of the convention center was designed by Peter Eisenman, winner of a design competition, which opened on the remaining site of the arcade north of the railroad tracks in 1993.

My photo of one of the Cap buildings from February 2026.

I-670 (the Innerbelt), which connects I-70, I-270, OH-315, and US-62 and was built on the former railway yards, had begun construction in the 1970s, but it was left incomplete due to budget issues. However, construction on the highway resumed in the 1990s, and the section between OH-315 to the west and US-23 (3rd & 4th Street) to the east was completed in 2004. A section of High Street which bridges the expressway, known as “The Cap,” is lined by two buildings designed to imitate the Union Station arcade.

Arch Park in 1980. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

Finally, the remaining arch (the “Union Station Arch”) from the arcade was disassembled and moved in 1977, eventually being reconstructed in a new park known as “Arch Park” in 1979. The arch was moved again in 1999 with the closure of Arch Park and replacement with a parking garage. Its current location is McFerson Commons in the Arena District, two blocks west of the site of Arch Park. During the move, the ornamental cherubs and medallions atop the cornice were removed and put into storage, and they have yet to be reinstalled.

Construction of another commuter rail station has been proposed, but given the auto manufacturing lobby and Ohio’s conservative leadership, it is unlikely that mass transit will ever return to Columbus.

Photos

Here is roughly the site of the Union Station train shed and station building:

The giant sign is centered over the railroad tracks that travel below (this whole section of High Street is a big viaduct), so the tracks are in the center of this picture. The older convention center at right is where the station building used to be.

Now, let’s pivot to the other remnant, the arch from the arcade. Unfortunately, it faces north, so its details are all shrouded in shadow and will never be lit by the setting sun again. Here is the remaining arch as it stands in McFerson Commons:

Oblique view from the corner of Nationwide Boulevard and John H. McConnell Boulevard:

This arch serves as a monument to the hubris of the “urban renewal” schemes of the mid-20th century and the demolition of significant historic buildings. One can only imagine the grandeur that a Gilded Age pedestrian would have felt while traversing the shops along High Street. Burnham’s design is one of the most elaborate classically influenced buildings I’ve seen in Columbus, and it was just thrown away.

One of the smaller Doric columns and its entablature:

Even these columns are pretty decorated for what is normally a bare-bones order, with various patterns around the base and capital. The cornice only has the guttae, which is also very unusual to me.

Two more Doric columns stand alone on either side of the main arch:

The bases have intricate patterns on the Corinthian columns, too:

Looking upward at the shafts and capitals:

The majority of the remaining shots are details of the beautiful ornamentation. Here are the unique Corinthian column capitals, as well as various patterns along the molding above:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Corinthian capital with interlacing elements like these. The rosettes above are also interesting.

Frieze and cornice above, which is partially missing:

Note the eagle medallions along the frieze--these adopted the perceived democratic values of classical architecture. The cornice is denticulated and has egg-and-dart molding above, and the projecting portion is supported by modillions.

One of the two angel reliefs in the arch spandrels:

She seems to be holding a winged wheel, possibly representing the railroads or industry. The other angel has a basket of fruits:

The large keystone features an eagle proudly perched:

The darker portion below the entablature was a terra-cotta tablet that once read “UNION STATION,” though the relief has worn away with age:

Much of the arch’s rear (facing south) is supported by plainer buff brick. It may have been concealed originally, or this may date to its reinstallation to support the upper portion.