Union Station (Nashville)
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Nashville Union Station and Trainshed
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Image of Union Station in 2008 taken at street level showing the major architectural features of what is now a hotel
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| Location | Broadway and 10th Ave. Nashville, Tennessee |
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| Coordinates | 36°09′26″N 86°47′05″W / 36.1572°N 86.7848°WCoordinates: 36°09′26″N 86°47′05″W / 36.1572°N 86.7848°W |
| Architect | Richard Montfort |
| NRHP Reference # | 69000178 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | December 30, 1969 |
| Designated NHL | 1975 |
| Delisted NHL | July 31, 2003 |
Nashville's Union Station is a former railroad terminal, now hotel, opened in 1900 to serve the passenger operations of the eight railroads then providing passenger service to Nashville, Tennessee. Built just to the west of the downtown area, its design placed it to the east and above a natural railroad cut through which most of the tracks of the area were routed which was spanned by a viaduct adjacent to the station. The station was also served by streetcars prior to their discontinuance in Nashville in 1941.
The station is an example of late-Victorian Romanesque Revival architecture and is highly castellated. The tower originally contained an early mechanical digital clock; when replacement French silk drive belts proved unavailable during World War I, it was replaced by a traditional analog clock. The tower was originally topped by a bronze statue of the Roman god Mercury; this was toppled in a storm in 1951. When a new Main Post Office was built in Nashville in 1935, it was located adjacent to Union Station. A connecting passageway between the two served to transport mail to and from trains for over three decades.
The station reached peak usage during World War II when it was the shipping-out point for tens of thousand of U.S. troops and the site of a USO canteen. It started a long decline shortly thereafter as passenger rail service in the U.S. generally went into decline. By the 1960s it was served by only a few trains daily. Much of its open spaces were roped off and its architectural features became largely the habitation of pigeons. The formation of Amtrak in 1971 reduced service to the northbound and southbound Floridian train between Chicago and St. Petersburg and Miami branches each day. When this service was discontinued in October 1979, the station was abandoned entirely.
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