History of Cincinnati Union Terminal

The construction of Union Terminal was a cooperative project of the railroad companies that served the city. Union Terminal centralized the freight and passenger operations of the Big Four (later the New York Central); the Pennsylvania; the Chesapeake & Ohio; the Norfolk & Western; the Southern; the Louisville & Nashville; and the Baltimore & Ohio railroads.

New York architects Alfred Fellheimer and Stewart Wagner, recognized leaders in the planning of urban railway stations, were hired to design the Union Terminal building. Their first designs were classical in style until Paul Phillipe Cret, a friend of Steward Wagner, was engaged as a consultant and influenced the art deco style of the building. Construction began in August 1929 and was completed March 31, 1933.

Cincinnati Union Terminal stands on a prominent location one mile northwest of the center of the city on land that once was Lincoln Park. Visitors approach the massive, arched, limestone and glass east facade of the building from Western Avenue and Ezzard Charles Drive through a quarter-mile plaza. The building is flanked on either side by curving wings. An illuminated fountain, cascade and pool are in the center foreground. On either side of the main doors, bas-relief figures designed by Maxfield Keck symbolize Commerce and Transportation.

During World War II, Cincinnati Union Terminal experienced unprecedented success. As a major transfer point for soldiers, the station served as many as 20,000 passengers a day. But in the 1950s, the sudden expansion of interstates and airlines led to the rapid decline of the railroad industry. By the early 1970s, only two passenger trains a day passed through Union Terminal, and in 1972, passenger train service was discontinued.

In 1975, the City of Cincinnati bought the terminal and ran advertisements in the Wall Street Journal, which read, "World-famous Cincinnati Union Terminal for lease-$1 per year." In 1980, a Columbus developer converted the terminal into a shopping mall.

The recession of the early 1980s caused the project to fail. During the mid-1980s, the administrators of the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and the Cincinnati Historical Society developed plans for a joint museum project. The spaciousness of Union Terminal, coupled with its history and design, made it the top choice as a location for the project. In 1986, Hamilton County voters approved a $33 million bond issue for the restoration of the terminal. The State of Ohio and the City of Cincinnati also contributed to the restoration with grants of $8 million and $3 million, respectively. In addition, more that 3,000 Cincinnati individuals, corporations and foundations also contributed to the building's renovation.

In November 1990, Cincinnati Union Terminal reopened as the Cincinnati Museum Center, an educational and cultural complex featuring the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History, the Cincinnati Historical Society Museum and Library, and the Robert D. Lindner Family OMNIMAX® Theater. On July 29, 1991, passenger train service was officially restored to the terminal. Amtrak, which had been using a small station on River Road as a stop on its Washington, D.C.-Chicago route, moved its service to the renovation Union Terminal

The museums, library and theater merged operations in January 1995 to form Cincinnati Museum Center. In July 1997, Cincinnati Museum Center welcomed the Children's Museum of Cincinnati. The new Cinergy Children's Museum at Museum Center has attracted more than one million visitors each year.

Union Terminal Facts and Figures
Work on Union Terminal started August 1929 and was completed on March 31, 1933.
Union Terminal cost $41 million, including the purchase of the ground and the readjustment of railroad facilities.
The Union Terminal complex, including the rail yards and supporting structures, takes up an area of 287 acres with 94 miles of track.
The Union Terminal complex originally was composed of 22 distinct buildings whose construction required 224,534 cubic yards of concrete, 100,500 square yards of paving, 8,250,000 bricks, and 45,421 net tons of steel.
The Cincinnati Union Terminal Company, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and the City of Cincinnati built the Western Hills Viaduct, which spans the rail yards, for a cost of $3.5 million. The viaduct is 3,500 feet long of which 2,800 feet is double-deck construction.
The Rotunda's interior dome spans 180 feet, with a height of 106 feet.
The station was designed to accommodate 17,000 passengers and 216 trains a day.
Passenger train service left Union Terminal on October 28, 1972 and resumed on July 29, 1991 when Amtrak began operating at Union Terminal.

Architectural Information

Originally conceived as a Neoclassical structure, Union Terminal was eventually designed as a modern building because of the high costs of executing a Neoclassical design during the onset of the Depression. Roland A. Wank of Fellheimer and Wagner served as the principal architect on Union Terminal with Paul Philipe Cret.

In 1933, entry to the terminal rotunda was through the main doors or through side entrances from the three vehicular tunnels used by cars, taxicabs and interurban buses. Today visitors to Cincinnati Museum Center use the main doors. The tunnel entrances have been closed, and the space converted to exhibition areas.

In 1933, the main concourse opened off the rotunda where the OMNIMAX® theater now stands. The concourse was 80 feet wide by 450 feet long and stood directly over the passenger train tracks. It had eight gates on each side leading down to the loading platforms.

The rotunda which has a diameter of 180 feet and whose height from the floor to the center of the finished interior of the dome is 106 feet. The ceiling and pilasters are finished in acoustic plaster. The ceiling is expecially striking with its arc of silver and surrounding bands of silver and shades of yellow and orange. The marble used in the building is red and yellow Verona. The original seating used in the rotunda was red and tan leather-covered settees and chairs arranged in groups rather than the traditional rows of wooden benches. The digital clock on the present-day information kiosk was on the original rotunda magazine stand. The floor of the rotunda is covered with terrazzo in a pattern of light and dark bands to reflect the arched form of the room.

Mosaics
German-born artist Winold Reiss was commissioned by Fellheimer and Wagner to design murals for Cincinnati Union Terminal in 1932. He was to design and create huge color mosaic murals for the rotunda and the train concourse and to assist in creating the Art Deco style for the entire building. Reiss won the commission over French artist Pierre Bourdelle. The mosaics are "a combination of two artistic techniques. The human images are rendered in [glass mosaic] tiles, while the background areas are treated as large masses of frescoed concrete - concrete that has the color added while it is still wet. Background shapes such as shadows, are outlined, or silhouetted, in tile." ("The Vision of Cincinnati: The Worker Murals of Winold Reiss" by Daniel Hurley, Queen City Heritage vol. 51, no. 2/3, summer/fall 1993, p. 82.)

The mural to the left (south) side of the rotunda depicts the development of the nation. The background traces the history of transportation from the dog travois of the Native Americans to the oceangoing steamship. The middle ground shows the changing landscape from the plains to the eastern metropolis. The foreground represents the people who lived in and settled the country - from the Native American to steel workers in the modern city.

The mural to the right (north) depicts the growth of Cincinnati. The background illustrates the development of Ohio River transportation from flatboat to airplane. The middle ground shows the infant Cincinnati, the spread of population to surrounding countryside, and, finally, the modern city. The foreground illustrates the people who lived here, including the soldiers at Fort Washington, settlers and industrial workers. Winold Reiss drew the portraits from life, frequently using Cincinnatians as his subjects.

The men instrumental in the terminal project are shown in wall mosaics located on either side of the concourse area, near the entry to the OMNIMAX® Theater. On the left (south) side are (left to right): Russell Wilson, Mayor of Cincinnati in 1933; H. A. Worcester, the first president of the Union Terminal Company; and C. A. Dykstra, City Manager in 1933. On the right (north) side are (left to right): Murray Seasongood, Mayor of Cincinnati in 1929 when the project began; C. O. Sherrill, City Manager in 1929; H. M. Waite, Chief Engineer for the Union Terminal Company; and George Dent Crabbs, civic leader and founder of the Union Terminal Company.

In addition, Reiss designed 14 mosaic panels for the train concourse depicting important Cincinnati industries of the time. These 14 panels were moved to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in the 1970s when the train concourse was removed. The industries depicted were:
Piano making (Baldwin Piano Co.)
Radio broadcasting (Crosley Broadcasting)
Roof manufacture (Philip Carey Co.)
Tanning (American Oak Leather Co.)
Airplane and parts manufacture (Aeronica Company)
Ink making (Ault & Weiborg Corp.)
Laundry-machinery manufacture (American Laundry Machine)
Meat packing (Kahn Meat Packing)
Drug and chemical processing (William S. Merrill Co.)
Printing and publishing (U.S. Playing Card Co. and Champion Paper Company)
Foundry products operations (Cincinnati Milling Machine)
Sheet steel making (American Rolling Mills and Newport Rolling Mill)
Soap making (The Procter & Gamble Co.)
Machine tools manufacture (Cincinnati Milling Machine).

The noted muralist Pierre Bourdelle was also commissioned to create artwork for the art deco railroad terminal. In the Cincinnati Dining Room, Bourdelle created a stylized map of the city which was wallpapered to the ceiling. Bourdelle also designed panels for the semi-circular women's lounge area adjacent to the dining rooms. Using his favorite motif of jungle animals, Bourdelle created carved and lacquered linoleum panels that serve as a background to the deep brown leather benches in the lounge.