Terre Haute Union Station

Terre Haute
Terre Haute Union Station, c. 1910
General information
Location301 North 8th Street
Terre Haute, Indiana
History
OpenedAugust 15, 1893
ClosedJune, 1960
Former services
Preceding station Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Following station
Baker
toward Evansville
Main Line Dewey
toward Chicago
Preceding station Milwaukee Road Following station
Fayette
towards Terre Haute
Terre Haute Division Dewey
towards Westport
Preceding station Pennsylvania Railroad Following station
Farrington
toward St. Louis
St. Louis – Pittsburgh Prairie
toward Pittsburgh

Terre Haute Union Station was a passenger train station located at Ninth Street and Spruce Street, Terre Haute, Indiana, serving riders for nearly 67 years. It was completed on August 15, 1893, at the cost of $273,000.

Union Station was designed by Cincinnati architect Samuel Hannaford. The station was a three and a half story structure built in the Romanesque style. Originally, it served the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad and the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad (which was bought by the Pennsylvania Railroad three days after Union Station opened), as it was at the junction of the two lines.[1] The station also served the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (also known as the ‘Milwaukee Road’). The last Milwaukee Road service was a short line route to Bedford, Indiana to the southeast. The company moved its last service out of the station in the 1930s.[2][3]

Barbara Carney, a railroad museum administrator, said that Buffalo Bill, Jack Benny, and presidents Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Richard Nixon all stopped at Union Station at some point.[4]

The station was demolished in the middle of June, 1960, with a crowd of approximately 1,000 observing the event.[5][1] For two decades in subsequent years, the building’s location was the site of the African American Culture Center at Indiana State University.

  1. ^ a b McCormick, Mike, ‘Terre Haute Tribune-Star,’ April 5, 2001, ‘Wabash Valley Profiles: Union Station.’ https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/vchs/id/593
  2. ^ "Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad". Official Guide of the Railways. 64 (9). National Railway Publication Company. February 1932.
  3. ^ "Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad". Official Guide of the Railways. 71 (3). National Railway Publication Company. December 1938.
  4. ^ Powell, Dianne F.D., ‘Terre Haute Tribune-Star,’ October 2, 2014, ‘Railroad Industry Helped Put Terre Haute ‘on the map’.’ https://www.tribstar.com/news/local_news/railroad-industry-helped-put-terre-haute-on-the-map/article_4f9b47c1-f621-5079-aa4c-613402b81e8b.html
  5. ^ Shawn Rogers, ‘Terre Haute Tribune-Star,’ June 19, 2010, ‘Looking Back: 1960: Workers Dynamite the Union Station Tower.’ https://www.tribstar.com/news/lifestyles/looking-back-1960-workers-dynamite-the-union-station-tower/article_4ce0629d-017e-5f6a-a5c7-266672b98ee1.html