1878: The Highly Lauded Opening of a Train Station in Kansas City

April 7, 1878

A newly completed train station in Kansas City, Missouri, made its official debut. “The new Union Depot of Kansas City will be opened to the public for the first time this morning,” announced that day’s edition of the Kansas City Times. “It will be an event in the history of Kansas City worthy of more than an ordinary mention, as through the portals of this magnificent building must pass this enterprise of wealth which shall make the City of Kansas the wonder of this decade.”

Union Depot was built on a narrow patch of land between Union Avenue and the tracks of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad in what is now the city’s West Bottoms industrial area. This structure became one of the country’s first union stations, which are train stations with tracks and facilities shared by two or more railroad companies; only the Indianapolis-based Union Station — opened in 1853 — was older. 

With Asa Beebe Cross (1826-1894) as its lead architect, Kansas City’s Union Depot brought together characteristics of both the Second Empire and Gothic Revival styles. The building’s more prominent features included arched windows framed in stone; a sloped roof; and towers of varying heights. In addition, there was a 125-foot (38-meter)-tall clock tower above the main entrance. (The accompanying photo of Union Depot was taken sometime around 1880.)

While ridiculed several local residents who thought it was too large, the station turned out to be ideally suited in terms of size for a city where the population tripled over the next quarter-century. Approximately 180 trains were passing through Union Depot on a daily basis by the start of the 20^th century. 

In 1903, however, it was decided that a new railroad station at another location was needed due to the need for even larger infrastructure, the limited amount of real estate available at Union Depot’s site, and the damage done to that section of Kansas City by a major flood. A new union station was opened elsewhere in the city just a little over a decade later.

Additional information on Union Depot in Kansas City is available at https://kchistory.org/this-week-kc-history/bottoms