Oklahoma City | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Former Rock Island Line and Frisco passenger station | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
General information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Location | 300 SW 7th St, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 35°27′26″N97°31′6″W / 35.45722°N 97.51833°W | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Owned by | City of Oklahoma City | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | July 15, 1931 [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Closed | 1967 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Former services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Union Depot | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Built | 1930 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NRHP reference No. | 78002254 [2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Added to NRHP | May 16, 1978 |
Oklahoma City Union Depot is a building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that served as a "union station" from 1931 until 1967. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. [2] It now houses the offices of the Scissortail Park Foundation.
Oklahoma City Union Station was built as part of a plan to move surface rail lines and passenger stations of the Rock Island and Frisco railroads out of downtown Oklahoma City. Grade-separating the tracks of the Santa Fe was also part of the plan. Bonds were issued by the city government to repurchase the rights of way of the Frisco and Rock Island and to pay for new civic buildings on the vacated land.
Prior to the construction of Union Station, the Rock Island had its depot on North Broadway between West 1st and West 2nd Streets. The Frisco had its passenger facilities a few blocks to the west between West Main and West 1st Streets fronting on North Hudson Street.
The previous stations were last used on November 30, 1930, with passenger traffic being moved to a temporary station at the foot of South Hudson Street [1] the next day. The Santa Fe Depot remained in use, and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad also continued using its own station.
The depot closed to the public in 1967 following the discontinuance of the last passenger trains serving Oklahoma City. Frisco passenger train service ended in May 1967 and Rock Island passenger train service ended in November 1967.
The terminal building, with 55,000 sq ft (5,100 m2) on its main floor, is a sprawling, generous California Spanish Mission Revival style. Racial segregation was incorporated into the design of the building and thus, there are two waiting rooms, the larger of which was for white people only and the other for colored people. The structure included many elegant touches (small courtyards and alcoves with fountains and gardens surrounding the station building).
Passengers accessed the original 12-track station through tunnels via a ramp from the depot's waiting room. Mail and express shipments were also routed under the station to the surface passenger platforms. Traffic on Hudson and Harvey streets met the trains "at grade," enabling passenger access and exchange of mail and express freight between trucks and trains. Traffic on Robinson and Walker streets used underpasses built as part of the station complex. Freight warehouses and material handling areas were located behind the passenger facilities.
Union Station was served by two different railroads.
Other Frisco trains operated between Oklahoma City Quanah, Texas via Lawton. [5]
These lines last saw passenger service in the 1960s with many sections saved from abandonment by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and operated by short-line railroads.
In the 1980s the facility was purchased by the city of Oklahoma City to become a multimodal transportation center at a cost of $1.8 million, with $1.2 million being a grant from the Federal Transit Administration. As part the I-40 Crosstown Realignment, the former yard tracks were replaced by the new highway. Space for two rail tracks in the station has been preserved as has the depot itself.
This realignment was unsuccessfully challenged by several organizations (OnTrac, North American Transportation Institute, Common Cause). This realignment will add an additional 10 lanes of road through downtown Oklahoma City while the current corridor becomes an at-grade boulevard.
On June 5, 2008, the Surface Transportation Board stated that BNSF Railway falsified an application and ruled against the realignment. [6] BNSF filed a petition to bypass hearings and debate all together to force the realignment [7] [8]
The original Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.
Saint Paul Union Depot is a historic railroad station and intermodal transit hub in the Lowertown neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota. It serves light rail, intercity rail, intercity bus, and local bus services.
The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, commonly known as the "Frisco", was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central United States from 1876 to November 21, 1980. At the end of 1970, it operated 4,547 miles (7,318 km) of road on 6,574 miles (10,580 km) of track, not including subsidiaries Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway and the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad; that year, it reported 12,795 million ton-miles of revenue freight and no passengers. In 1980 it was purchased by and absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad. Despite its name, it never came close to San Francisco.
The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company, known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", was a Class I railroad that operated between St. Louis, Missouri, and various points in the U.S. states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas from 1891 to 1980, when the system added the Rock Island's Golden State Route and operations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Cotton Belt operated as a Southern Pacific subsidiary from 1932 until 1992, when its operation was assumed by Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
A union station is a type of railroad station used by more than one railroad company, line, or service provider, typically found in North America.
The Midland Valley Railroad (MV) was a railroad company incorporated on June 4, 1903 for the purpose of building a line from Hope, Arkansas, through Muskogee and Tulsa, Oklahoma to Wichita, Kansas. It was backed by C. Jared Ingersoll, a Philadelphia industrialist who owned coal mining properties in Indian Territory. The railroad took its name from Midland, Arkansas, a coal mining town in western Arkansas, which was served by the railroad. The Midland Valley gained access to Fort Smith, Arkansas via trackage rights over the Frisco from Rock Island, Oklahoma.
The Choctaw Rocket was a named passenger train operated by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad between Memphis, Tennessee, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, and Amarillo. Initially designated as train No. 51 (westbound) and train No. 52 (eastbound), it was the first diesel powered streamliner to operate out of Memphis, Tennessee, as well as the first streamliner service in the state of Arkansas.
Santa Fe Depot, also known as the Santa Fe Transit Hub, is an Amtrak station located in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is the northern terminus of the Heartland Flyer, a daily train to Fort Worth, Texas.
Memphis Central Station, referred to as Grand Central Station prior to 1944, is a passenger terminal in Memphis, Tennessee. Located along Main Street and G.E. Patterson Boulevard in Downtown Memphis, it currently a service stop for Amtrak's City of New Orleans route, arriving in late evening northbound and in the morning southbound. It is also served by the MATA Trolley system. The building was opened in 1914, and is located within the city's South Main Arts District. It is also an contributing property to the South Main Street Historic District of the National Register of Historic Places, as are the National Civil Rights Museum and other historic properties within the district boundaries.
Joliet Union Station is an inactive Beaux-Arts train station in downtown Joliet, Illinois, built in 1912. Union Station was constructed as part of a large improvement project for the six railroads serving Joliet, which converged on the city as an important rail transportation hub just outside Chicago. At its peak, Union Station served over 100 intercity trains per day, with additional commuter and interurban service.
Stillwater Central Railroad is a shortline railroad operating in Oklahoma.
Ardmore is an Amtrak train station in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The station is serviced by the daily Heartland Flyer, which travels from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Fort Worth, Texas.
The Beaumont, Sour Lake and Western Railway was an 85-mile (137 km) railroad that ran from Beaumont, Texas to Gulf Coast Junction in Houston. It passed through small southeast Texas communities such as Hull, Kenefick, and Huffman. As part of the Gulf Coast Lines system, the road was eventually merged into the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1956, which in turn was merged into the Union Pacific Railroad in 1982. The Union Pacific still makes heavy use of the route.
Transportation in Tulsa, Oklahoma includes a bus network and a system of raised highways and primary thoroughfares, laid out in mile-by-mile increments. In addition, throughout its entire length in Tulsa, historic Route 66 is a drivable road, with motels and restaurants reminiscent of the route's heyday era.
The Minneapolis Great Northern Depot, also known as Great Northern Station, was a passenger railroad station which served Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. It was built in 1913 and demolished in 1978. It was located on Hennepin Avenue next to the Hennepin Avenue Bridge and across the street from the main Minneapolis Post Office.
The Arkansas Valley and Western Railway (AV&W) was built as a short line railroad operating within the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It was founded in 1902 to link the city of Tulsa with the main transcontinental line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) at Avard. The line was built in sections, initially from AV&W Jct. to Steen (Enid) during 1902-03. In 1904 it was extended westward to the junction with AT&SF at Avard. On July 19, 1907, the railroad was purchased by the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, who operated it until November 21, 1980, when the Frisco was acquired by Burlington Northern Railroad.
The Denver, Enid and Gulf Railroad (DE&G) was built as a short line railroad operating in Kansas, and Oklahoma. Incorporated in Oklahoma as the Denver, Enid and Gulf Railroad Company, March 31, 1902, by the five Frantz Brothers.
The Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad (CO&G), known informally as the "Choctaw Route," was an American railroad in the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma.
The Choctaw Route Station is a historic former railroad station on East 3rd Street in the riverfront area of Little Rock, Arkansas. The building now houses the Clinton School of Public Service, a branch of the University of Arkansas at the Clinton Presidential Center. The station, built in 1899 for the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad, is a single-story brick building with elaborate terra cotta detailing, and is one of the architecturally finest stations in the state.