19th century The station was opened on September 1, 1894, by the
Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. The station was designed by
Theodore Link, and included three main areas: the Headhouse and the Midway, and the Train Shed designed by civil engineer
George H. Pegram. The
headhouse originally housed a hotel, a restaurant, passenger waiting rooms and railroad ticketing offices. It featured a gold-leafed Grand Hall,
Romanesque arches, a barrel-vaulted ceiling and stained-glass windows. The
clock tower is high. Union Station's
headhouse and midway are constructed of
Indiana limestone and initially included 32 tracks under its vast
trainshed terminating in the stub-end terminal. At its opening, it was the world's largest and busiest railroad station and its trainshed was the largest roof span in the world.
20th century In 1903, Union Station was expanded to accommodate visitors to the
1904 St. Louis World's Fair. At its height, the station combined the St. Louis passenger services of 22 railroads, the most of any single terminal in the world. In the 1940s, it handled 100,000 passengers a day. The 1940s expansion added a new ticket counter designed as a half-circle and a mural by
Louis Grell could be found atop the customer waiting area which depicted the history of St. Louis with an old fashion steam engine, two large steamboats and the
Eads Bridge in the background. The famous photograph of
Harry S. Truman holding aloft the erroneous
Chicago Tribune headline, "
Dewey Defeats Truman", was shot at the station as Truman headed back to
Washington, D.C., from
Independence, Missouri, after the 1948 Presidential election. As
airliners became the primary mode of long-distance travel and railroad passenger services declined in the 1950s and 1960s, the massive station became obsolete and too expensive to maintain for its original purpose. By 1961, several tracks had been paved over for parking.
Amtrak took over passenger service in 1971 but abandoned Union Station on October 31, 1978. By then, Amtrak had cut back service to four routes per day–the
State House, the
Ann Rutledge, the
National Limited (formerly the
Spirit of St. Louis) and the
Inter-American. The eight total trains were nowhere near enough to justify the use of such a large facility. The last train to leave Union Station was a Chicago-bound
Inter-American. Passenger service shifted to a temporary-style "Amshack" two blocks east. Amtrak has since moved its St. Louis service to the
Gateway Transportation Center, one block east of Union Station. The station was designated a
National Historic Landmark in 1970, as an important surviving example of large-scale railroad architecture from the late 19th century. It was designated as a
National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the
American Society of Civil Engineers in 1981.
1980s commercial redevelopment Union Station Mall and Hotel {{Infobox shopping mall {{Infobox hotel
Union Station Festival Marketplace, also referred to as the
St. Louis Union Station Mall was a
festival marketplace in
St. Louis, Missouri, United States, which was developed inside St. Louis Union Station as part of a 1980s redevelopment by
The Rouse Company and Oppenheimer Properties. It was the last festival marketplace
James W. Rouse had any involvement on with the main Rouse Company before he officially stepped down as chairman in 1984, focusing on his
Enterprise Foundation subsidiary.
History (1978–1990s) Following Union Station's closure as a rail terminal in 1978,
The Rouse Company and Steve Miller of Oppenheimer Properties were selected to redevelop the area into a
shopping center. Rouse and Oppenheimer then formed the subsidiary
St. Louis Union Station Beergarten, Inc. for development of the mall,
Rouse Missouri Management Corporation for the facility's day-to-day operations, and hired
HOK to design the Union Station Festival Marketplace, and the building officially reopened as a
festival marketplace on August 29, 1985, with a 539-room hotel known as
St. Louis Union Station Hotel,
shopping mall (including a concourse known as
The Midway Shops), restaurants and the
Train Shed Picnic, a
food court. Federal historic rehabilitation tax credits were used to transform Union Station into one of the city's most visited attractions. The station rehabilitation by
Conrad Schmitt Studios remains one of the largest adaptive re-use projects in the United States. The hotel is housed in the headhouse and part of the train shed, which also houses a lake and shopping, entertainment and dining establishments. Omni Hotels was the original hotel operator, followed by the
Hyatt Regency Hotel chain and
Marriott Hotels.
Decline and ownership changes (1990s–2010s) Despite its initial success in the mid and late-1980s, Union Station Festival Marketplace quickly suffered from high maintenance costs due to the massive size of the former train station. Additionally, in the 1990s, for financial reasons, The Rouse Company began shifting from local vendors to national chains across all of its marketplaces, including Union Station, leading to the opening of
Hooters, but doing that only made the mall's problems even worse, as it further gave shoppers little to no reason to visit Union Station Mall with paid parking rather than going to malls with similar options but with better advantages and are closer, such as the
St. Louis Galleria. Union Station Mall was essentially a "tourist-trap" for those specific reasons. Declining foot traffic and competition from suburban shopping centers also played a role in Union Station Mall's gradual failure, as despite its promotion as a tourist attraction, its only visitors were office workers stopping by to have lunch at the food court. In 2005,
Michael J. Kelly of
Chicago bought Union Station for $105 million. However, financial problems occurred in 2008, and the station remained untouched. Union Station Mall was losing $1 million annually, and was soon owed
back taxes by its holding company. Following these problems, Bob O'Loughlin was called for redevelopment. He stated, "The place needs a lot of fix-up." In January 2016, St. Louis Union Station Mall's interior closed to the public, with the last remaining tenants only having public access within exterior entrances. In August 2016, Lodging Hospitality Management announced plans to renovate Union Station once again, including plans to redevelop the largely vacant mall into an aquarium. The Memories Museum features artifacts and displays about the history of St. Louis Union Station and rail travel in the United States. Located on the upper level of the train shed, the museum is a joint project of Union Station Associates and the
National Museum of Transportation. The original architectural drawings and blueprints for Union Station and the original hotel are available to researchers at the Washington University Archives at Washington University in St. Louis. Some architectural elements from the building have been removed in renovations and taken to the
Sauget, Illinois, storage site of the
National Building Arts Center. St. Louis Union Station was the venue for the
FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship component of the
FIRST Championship, hosted in St. Louis every April until 2017, after which it was moved to
Detroit. The station's train shed area features the St. Louis Wheel, a high, 42 gondola
observation wheel. Inside the station is The St. Louis Rope Course, a , 3-story indoor ropes and zip line course. Union Station has two light show features: one in the train shed area, and another inside Union Station Hotel's lobby. St. Louis Union Station Mall's last remaining tenant,
Hard Rock Cafe, closed permanently on August 16, 2018. The restaurant's parent company,
Hard Rock International, announced the closure on June 19, 2018, and stated, "We are exploring other opportunities in St. Louis and hope to re-enter the market when we can identify the right new location." However, as of February 2026, St. Louis remains without a new Hard Rock. LHM began construction on the
St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station in 2019, demolishing portions of the original 1980s interior. LHM spent $5 million to $8 million to renovate the former Hard Rock space. It was announced to be replaced by the
St. Louis Union Station Soda Fountain, a retro-style
candy emporium and
ice cream parlor designed to align with the new family-friendly branding of the complex. It was slated to open in the summer of 2019. Besides the aquarium, LHM also planned to include a 200-foot Ferris wheel outside of Union Station. The $45 million St. Louis Aquarium was scheduled to open in the fall of 2019. At , the aquarium is home to more than 13,000 animals representing over 250 species. == Transportation ==