Union Station (Providence)

Last updated

Providence, RI
Union Station Providence.jpg
1898 Union Station
General information
Location Providence, Rhode Island
United States
Coordinates 41°49′33″N71°24′48″W / 41.8258°N 71.4133°W / 41.8258; -71.4133
Owned by Amtrak
Line(s)Amtrak Northeast Corridor
History
Opened1847
Closed1986
Rebuilt1898
Former services
Preceding station BSicon LOGO Amtrak2.svg Amtrak Following station
Kingston
toward Tri-State
Hilltopper Route 128
toward Boston South
Kingston Northeast Corridor
East Greenwich
toward New Haven
Beacon Hill
Preceding station MBTA.svg MBTA Following station
Terminus Providence/​Stoughton Line
pre-1981
Pawtucket/​Central Falls
Foxboro event service
1971-73
Pawtucket/​Central Falls
toward Foxboro
Preceding station PennCentral Logo.svg Penn Central Following station
Warwick
toward Westerly
Westerly–​Providence local
1971-1979 [1]
Terminus
Preceding station New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Following station
East Greenwich
toward New Haven
Shore Line Pawtucket-Central Falls
toward Boston
Pawtucket-Central Falls
toward Worcester
Providence and Worcester Railroad Terminus
Cranston
toward Hartford
New York and New England Railroad
Union Station
Built1898
Architect Stone, Carpenter & Willson
Part of Downtown Providence Historic District (ID84001967)
NRHP reference No. 75000003 [2]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPFebruary 20, 1975
Designated CPFebruary 10, 1984
Location
Union Station (Providence)

Union Station describes two distinct, defunct train stations in Providence, Rhode Island. Parts of the latter one were renovated and the building contains offices and restaurants.

Contents

Union Station (18471887)

The original Union Station was Providence's first, opening in 1848 to accommodate the needs of the newly thriving city. This building was designed by 21 year old Rhode Island architect, Thomas Alexander Tefft in the Lombard Romanesque style. Construction of the station was supervised by Tallman & Bucklin. Extending 720 feet along the edge of Exchange Place, the structure was the largest railroad station in the United States the time of its construction. [3] The building has also been dubbed longest building in the country at the time, though this assertion is disputed. [4] [5]

In 1885, American Architect and Building News voted the building one of the 20 best buildings in the country. [4] 20th century architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock wrote of the station, "without much question it was the finest early station in the New World." [6]

As the city continued to grow, so too did the need for terminal space, ultimately resulting in the paving over of the remnants of the city's inland bay in 1890. The question of what to do with the now undersized station was spontaneously answered on February 21, 1896 when the building suffered a catastrophic fire that effectively gutted the structure. [7]

Union Station (18981986)

A much larger Union Station was opened in 1898, clad in distinctive yellow brick, which the Providence Journal heralded as "a new era of history of this city". [8] The station was designed by the firm of Stone, Carpenter & Willson, which had also designed other Providence buildings. [9] Though rail use was expected to grow, by the 1980s rail traffic had dropped 75 percent. City planners saw the opportunity to dismantle the "Chinese Wall" of train tracks that hemmed in Providence's central business district and moved MBTA and Amtrak service to a new, smaller Providence station about a half mile north in 1986. [10]

Redevelopment (1987–present)

Union Station caught fire in April 1987 amidst $11 million in renovations, forcing a change of plans. [11] Parts of the original station have now been renovated and the building contains offices and restaurants, including the Union Station Brewery.

The center-most building of Union Station now houses the Rhode Island Foundation, which leases space to The Public's Radio, RI Kids Count, [12] and Women's Fund RI. [13]

A $23.5-million investment to develop Rhode Island's first food hall in the station was begun in 2022 by a local developer who purchased the building from The Rhode Island Foundation. [14] [15] The 18,000-square-foot food hall is named "Track 15", a reference to the fact that the historic Union Station had 14 tracks. [14] It opened on March 18, 2025. [16]

References

  1. Belcher, Jonathan. "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district" (PDF). Boston Street Railway Association.
  2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  3. Anger, Jenny. "The Rise of the Professional Architect". Thomas Alexander Tefft: American Architecture in Transition, 1845-1860. Ed. Kathleen A. Curran. Providence, RI: Brown University, 1988.
  4. 1 2 Brussat, David (August 28, 2017). Lost Providence. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   978-1-4671-3724-9.
  5. Heppner, Frank (February 27, 2012). Railroads of Rhode Island: Shaping the Ocean State's Railways. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   978-1-61423-363-3.
  6. Hitchcock, Henry-Russell (1987). Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-05320-3.
  7. Societies (U.S.), Association of Engineering (1909). Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies.
  8. Woodward, William McKenzie (2003). PPS/AIAri Guide to Providence Architecture. Providence, RI: Providence Preservation Society. pp. 303–304. ISBN   0-9742847-0-X.
  9. "RISD : Rhode Island School of Design : MUSEUM HISTORY". Archived from the original on May 6, 2008. Retrieved April 13, 2007.
  10. Woodward, William McKenzie (2003). PPS/AIAri Guide to Providence Architecture. Providence, RI: Providence Preservation Society. p. 13. ISBN   0-9742847-0-X.
  11. "Providence Journal Article" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  12. "Rhode Island KIDS COUNT > Home" . Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  13. "Women's Fund of Rhode Island" . Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  14. 1 2 Ciampa, Gail (November 8, 2023). "Providence's first food hall has a name, merchants and an opening date. What to expect". Providence, RI: The Providence Journal. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  15. Doiron, Sarah (April 20, 2022). "RI's first food hall coming to Union Station". WPRI-TV . Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  16. Crowley, Leah; Burnell, Kristin (March 18, 2025). "New Providence food hall holds grand opening". WPRI. Retrieved March 18, 2025.