The Union Station was a train station in Savannah, Georgia

Savannah, Georgia

Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...

. It was located at 419 through 435 West Broad Street, between Stewart and Roberts streets, on the site that is now listed as 435 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.

Architecture

It was designed by Columbia, South Carolina

Columbia, South Carolina

Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...

 architect Frank Pierce Milburn

Frank Pierce Milburn

Frank Pierce Milburn was a prolific architect of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While Milburn designed commercial buildings and residences, his practice was primarily focused on public buildings, particularly courthouses and legislative buildings...

 and completed in 1902 at a cost of $150,000. It was an example of Spanish Renaissance

Architecture of the Spanish Renaissance

Renaissance architecture was that style of architecture which evolved firstly in Florence and then Rome and other parts of Italy as the result of Humanism and a revived interest in Classical architecture...

 and Elizabethian styles. The main feature of the structure was an octagonal rotunda which measured 80 feet in diameter and served as the general waiting room. Since most of the station's history took place under the South's Jim Crow

Jim Crow laws

The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...

 segregation system, a colored waiting room was assigned to African-Americans.

The exterior walls were made of pressed brick with granite and terra cotta trimmings. The building also had two towers.

Significance and history

Many visitors disembarked trains onto West Broad Street. They brought enough business for theaters, bars, stores to open in that section of town. For decades, the Union Station and its surroundings became known as the economic and cultural center for Black Savannah.

In 1963 though, the Union Station was demolished to make room for Interstate 16

Interstate 16

Interstate 16 , also known as Jim Gillis Historic Savannah Parkway or State Route 404 , is an intrastate Interstate Highway located entirely within the state of Georgia, United States...

 and what would eventually be known as the Earl T. Shinhoster Interchange. The neighborhood entered a period of economic and social decline and has never recovered since then.

Current use of the site

An Emmark service station (405 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd) is located nearby what was once the site of the Union Station.

The Savannah Visitor Information Center is in another former train station

Central of Georgia Railroad: Savannah Shops and Terminal Facilities

The Central of Georgia Railroad: Savannah Shops and Terminal Facilities is a historic district in Savannah, Georgia, that was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1978. It is dominated by the Central of Georgia Depot and Trainshed, a passenger depot and trainshed constructed...

, located nearby, at 301 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.