Union Station (Indianapolis)

Indianapolis
Location	350 South Illinois Street Indianapolis, Indiana 46225
Owned by	City of Indianapolis
Platforms	1 island platform (formerly more)
Tracks	2 (formerly more)
Connections	Greyhound Lines Burlington Trailways
Construction
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Station code	IND
History
Opened	1979
Traffic
Passengers (2013)	36,162  3.7%
Services
Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station Crawfordsville toward Chicago Hoosier State Terminus Cardinal Connersville toward New York City   Former services   Baltimore and Ohio Speedway toward Springfield Springfield – Hamilton New Palestine toward Hamilton Illinois Central Frances toward Effingham Effingham – Indianapolis Terminus New York Central Railroad Augusta toward Chicago Chicago – Cincinnati (Big Four Railroad) Beech Grove toward Cincinnati Avon toward St. Louis St. Louis – Cleveland Lawrence, Indiana toward Cleveland Brownsburg toward Peoria Peoria – Indianapolis Terminus Terminus Indianapolis – Springfield Mt. Comfort toward Springfield Pennsylvania Railroad Lebanon, Indiana toward Chicago Chicago – Louisville Southport toward Louisville Lebanon, Indiana toward South Bend South Bend – Indianapolis Terminus Maywood toward Vincennes Vincennes – Indianapolis Bridgeport toward St. Louis St. Louis – Columbus Cumberland toward Columbus Amtrak Crawfordsville toward Chicago Kentucky Cardinal Jeffersonville toward Louisville Terre Haute toward Kansas City National Limited Richmond, Indiana toward New York City or Washington, DC
Indianapolis Union Railroad Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
South Illinois Street entrance.
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Location	39 Jackson Place, Indianapolis
Coordinates	39°45′47″N 86°9′34″W / 39.76306°N 86.15944°W / 39.76306; -86.15944Coordinates: 39°45′47″N 86°9′34″W / 39.76306°N 86.15944°W / 39.76306; -86.15944
Area	1.3 acres (0.5 ha)
Built	1886–1888 (head house); 1915–1922 (train shed)
Architect	Thomas Rodd
Architectural style	Romanesque
NRHP Reference #	74000032
Added to NRHP	July 19, 1974

The Indianapolis Union Station was the first union station in the world, opening on September 20, 1853, by the Indianapolis Union Railway within the Wholesale District of Indianapolis, Indiana, at 39 Jackson Place. A much larger Richardsonian Romanesque station was designed by Pittsburgh architect Thomas Rodd and constructed at the same location beginning in November 1886 and opening in September 1888. The head house (main waiting area and office) and clock tower of this second station still stand today.

Amtrak, the national rail passenger carrier, continues to serve Union Station from a waiting area beneath the train shed. It is served by the Cardinal and is the eastern terminus of the Hoosier State.

Thomas Rodd's design clearly shows the influence of noted architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). Historian James R. Hetheringon has concluded that Pittsburgher Rodd would have studied the nearly completed Allegheny County Courthouse designed by Richardson prior to his death in 1886. Considered by Richardson to be his best work, the Courthouse was highly influential, with the Union Station one of the oldest surviving examples.

The three-story Union Station is built of granite and brick, with a battered water table and massive brick arches characteristic of the Romanesque. It features an enormous rose window, slate roof, bartizans at section corners, and a soaring 185-foot clock tower. The 1888 station included a large street-level iron train shed.

The first railroad to reach Indianapolis was the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, which began service there in 1847. Competing railroads began connecting Indianapolis to other locations, but each had its own station in various parts of the young city, creating problems for passengers and freight alike. This problem was common to many U.S. cities, but Indianapolis was the first to solve it with a union station, which all railroads were to use. In August 1849, the Union Railway Company was formed, and it began to lay tracks to connect the various railroads. Then in 1853, it built a large brick train shed at the point where all the lines met, becoming the first union station in the United States.