Lower Downtown, Walking Tour, Union Station
1880 / 1914
Denver's Union Station was constructed to consolidate rail activity in the City and to replace the four separate stations serving the boom town. When completed in 1890 in an Italianate style of Colorado Rhyolite with sandstone trim, the station measured 504 feet in length and was topped by a 128 foot tower, making it the largest structure in Colorado at the time. Twenty thousand proud Denverites attended the opening festivities of the station. The 1880 building was designed by Architect William E. Taylor of Kansas City. Its two wings were expanded in 1892, making the station 1880 feet long. A spectacular fire, probably caused by an electrical short destroyed the central portion of the station on March 18, 1894. The insurance paid up, and the station was rebuilt under the supervision of Van Brunt and Howe Architects of Kansas City. As railway traffic burgeoned the railroad companies began to push for a newer, bigger station. In 1914, the 1894 portion was razed and replaced by a central three-story Neoclassical section which still stands. During World War II, more than 80 trains a day passed through Union Station. As late as the mid 1980's there were a mere two. Yet the three-story semi-circular windows of Union Station looking down 17th Street reflect a history which catapulted Denver from being a dusty mining town to its status as Queen City of the Plains.
Marker is on Wynkoop Street near 17th Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
