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, is located at 401 South 4th Avenue in downtown Phoenix.
Architecture
Phoenix Union Station was constructed in 1923 by the Santa Fe and the Arizona Eastern (Southern Pacific) Railroads. The Station is one of the best examples of Mission Revival
architecture
in Phoenix. The Mission Revival style, a popular building style between 1890 and the 1920s, was typified by such Union Station features as stucco wall finishes, arcades, red tiled roofs, curvilinear gables, massive piers, and impost moldings.
According to the "Phoenix Historic Building Survey" by the Phoenix City Council, September 1979:
Historic Name: Union Station of the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe Railroads
Description
- A large Mission Revival railroad station with a central two-story waiting room structure between long, low arcaded wings. Red-tiled, gabled roofs are terminated by high parapet walls that are shaped with the familiar curves of the Mission Revival at the ends of the wings and in entrance pavilions at both the railroad and street sides of the central pavilion. In keeping with the character of the Mission Revival there are few other decorative details.
- The waiting room is a high, beamed space with original wooden furnishings and particularly fine ceiling light fixtures. There have been some alterations in the waiting room, and the arcaded wings which were originally open as passenger waiting areas have been enclosed. A microwave transmitting tower next to the central pavilion is out of harmony with the structure...
Significance:
- Union Station was a joint venture between the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe Railroad Companies and was designed by their architect, Peter Kiewit. Dedicated on September 30, 1923, the building was proclaimed a "Monument to the progressiveness and prosperity of the valley and a testimony of the confidence in the future of the Salt River Valley and Phoenix."
- A milestone in Phoenix's development, Union Station ushered in tourism on a grand scale and promoted greater national visibility.
History
Phoenix Union Station was commissioned on September 16, 1922, by the Arizona Eastern Railroad Company, a Southern PacificSouthern Pacific RailroadThe Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
affiliate, and by the California, Arizona and Santa Fe Railroad, then part of the Santa Fe Railway system and was built by the Robert E. McKee Construction Company. Construction of this union station was the result of an order by the Arizona Corporation Commission to the railroads to consolidate their separate station facilities located several blocks apart in downtown Phoenix.
The main station building is 475 feet long and 74 feet wide. The adjoining Post Office building is 78 feet long and 62 feet wide. The mission revival style building is constructed of structural steel and reinforced concrete and was completed at a cost of $556,000.
Three years after the station was completed, the new Southern Pacific main line through Phoenix was opened with the arrival of the eastbound Californian
CalifornianCalifornian is an adjective describing something related to the American state of California.It can also refer to:Periodicals:* The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California* The Salinas Californian, Salinas, California...
on November 15, 1926. After the track was fully seasoned, the Golden State and Sunset LimitedSunset LimitedThe Sunset Limited is a passenger train that for most of its history has run between New Orleans, Louisiana and Los Angeles, California, and that from early 1993 through late August 2005 also ran east of New Orleans to Jacksonville, Florida, making it during that time the only true transcontinental...
served the station beginning March 20 of the following year. Prior to this, the only access to SP's transcontinental trains was via connecting trains on the old Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad at MaricopaMaricopa, Arizona-Surrounding Municipalities:-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 43,482 people, 14,359 households, and 11,110 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,356.8 people per square mile . There were 17,240 housing units at an average density of 540.4 per square mile...
.
When rail travel was at its peak during and immediately after World War Two, Phoenix Union Station was served by as many as eighteen trains a day. A pair of Santa Fe trains arrived and departed for Parker, Barstow, and Los Angeles
Los ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. And Santa Fe's fondly remembered Hassayampa Flyer connected Phoenix with Williams Junction and Santa Fe's great transcontinental trains to and from the east.
Southern Pacific operated the Sunset Limited between Los Angeles and New Orleans, the service which continues under Amtrak today (NOTE: rerouted away from Phoenix proper in 1996, in favor of Maricopa). The Sunset Limited had through cars to Dallas and St. Louis by way of the Texas and Pacific connection at El Paso
El Paso, TexasEl Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
. In conjunction with the Rock IslandChicago, Rock Island and Pacific RailroadThe Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.-Incorporation:...
, Southern Pacific operated the Golden State Limited, together with several lesser trains on the Los Angeles - Phoenix - Chicago route. From December 1940 to April 1941, and from December 1941 to April 1942, Rock Island and Southern Pacific operated the deluxe Arizona Limited between Phoenix and Chicago. In April 1964, the Sunset Limited and the Golden State were combined between Los Angeles and El Paso. The Golden State made its last run in February, 1968. The Hassayampa was discontinued in April of the following year.
Until superseded by Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport sometime in the fifties, Phoenix Union Station was the undisputed gateway to the city. This station has served millions of arriving and departing passengers during the fifty-nine years since it was completed. This station has also played host to many special occasions and celebrations. The two having the largest recorded attendance are the Main Line celebration on Friday, October 15, 1926, and the second day of Phoenix Union Station Days, Sunday, February 24, 1991. On both days over ten thousand persons gathered to celebrate the importance of this great building and the invaluable service it has provided.
In 1995, the last full year Amtrak stopped at Union Station, 21,495 passengers boarded or alighted here.
Since Amtrak left in 1996, the Olympic Torch train has stopped here twice, and tourist trains like the GrandLuxe (formerly American Orient Express) have occasionally used Union Station.
In 2000, the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Arizona Rail Passenger Association presented "Transpo 2000," an exposition of a modern Talgo
trainset at Union Station.
Historic designations
- National Register of Historic Places #NPS 85003056
- Phoenix City Register
Current services
No regular passenger trains currently call at Union Station.Amtrak
operates the Sunset Limited
three times a week from the town of Maricopa
, which is in Pinal County thirty miles south of downtown Phoenix. A private company, White's Taxi Shuttle, operates a taxi service to the Phoenix metro area; there is no bus or Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach
service to Maricopa. The Sunset Limited also serves Tucson
, and many Phoenix passengers travel to Tucson as an alternative to boarding the train in Maricopa (Greyhound
operates frequent daily motorcoach service between Phoenix and Tucson; the Tucson Greyhound and Amtrak stations are both in the downtown area, about a half mile apart).
Amtrak's Southwest Chief
train route operates through Flagstaff
daily, and Amtrak provides guaranteed through-ticketed Thruway Motorcoach connecting shuttle service via Open Road Tours from the Phoenix Metro Center and Camp Verde to and from the trains at Flagstaff.