Sunday, March 9, 2014
ST. LOUIS -- A 28-foot-long mural that graced St. Louis Union Station starting in the 1940s was thought to be lost. It turns out it was just hiding.
The mural "Commerce on the Landing" was painted by Chicago artist Louis Grell and mounted over the station's ticket counter in 1942. At some point it was taken away. No one was sure what happened to it.
About a month ago, workers involved in the $66 million renovation of Union Station and its hotel found the mural behind a false wall near Grand Hall. It was unveiled to the media this week.
Plans call for the three panels of the mural to be cleaned and mounted over the hotel registration desk, just off the Grand Hall.
Officials with Lodging Hospitality Management, the company renovating Union Station, said they had been looking for the mural since architects saw it in old photos. LHM general manager Tim Cooper said the panels were stored there decades ago.
The mural is a large scene of the riverfront in the late 19th century. It includes the Eads Bridge, three steamboats and a locomotive pulling a train along Wharf Street.
"This is an exciting discovery of a mural that tells a wonderful story of the growth of commerce in St. Louis," said Jonathan Kodner, a St. Louis gallery owner.
Union Station once was the nation's second-busiest passenger station. It last served Amtrak trains in 1978. The building was saved and reopened as a mall in 1985. Many of the mall shops are vacant.
St. Louis County-based LHM bought the hotel and half-empty station for $20 million two years ago. The company is renovating the 539-room hotel, now a Hilton Double Tree, as well as refinishing the Grand Hall, adjoining rooms and the retail area.
LHM also wants to bring excursion trains and private cars back to the station's two remaining tracks, and put a restaurant back in the space once occupied by a Fred Harvey restaurant off the midway.
I wish them a lot of luck on the redevelopment of the station - and they will need it, if it is to be a selfsustaining, profitable enterprise.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
It is a great structure. However, successful station malls and hotels seem to work only when they have the foot traffic of rail passengers. Examples include the retail mall in the huge Central Station in Leipzig or the hotel at St. Pancras in London. For St. Louis Union Station to be successful, bring back the trains.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
Yes, as Schlimm says, it is a grand structure, which I did not get to until in June of 1968. Even then, I was able to eat breakfast in the restaurant before taking the Abraham Lincoln to Chicago after coming in overnight from Birmingham on the IC. I was on my way from where I lived in Alabama to a meeting in Montreat (just across the Blue Ridge from Asheville), North Carolina. Even though it had lost some of its grandeur, I still enjoyed seeing it.
My mother was there a few years earlier, in 1900 (she was four years old then), and told me of slippery floors in the station. I do not remember if she told me of her falling down.
I stayed at the old Terminal Hotel twice, once in 1969 and once in 1970; it was not quite as elegant as it had been, and I had trouble finding my room after stepping off the elevator because the lighting in the hall was low-level. It was inexpensive and convenient to travel by rail, though.
As to the new hotel, if the renewal of my certificate for shipping hazardous material (I don't remember, now, if it was the air or ground certificate) had come up at a different time, I would have had an opportunity to stay there towards the end of the last century, for the company providing the classes held that session in the hotel.
My last trip to St. Louis was in 1989, when my wife and I came in on the train from Memphis, ate breakfast at the old station, saw some of the waterfront (complete with seeing the city from the Arch), ate lunch at the station, and left on the afternoon train for Chicago. We slept through on the Texas Eagle eight years later.
Johnny
Are there any proposals to return Amtrak trains back to the Union Station from the Amshack?
schlimm Are there any proposals to return Amtrak trains back to the Union Station from the Amshack?
The personnel at the station are quite pleasant, and I enjoy talking with them when I have occasion to be there.
I wouldn't count on it. In Richmond VA, Amtrak goes right past the beautiful Union Station, which has been turned into a museum, on it's way to that thing that looks like a bus station at Staples Mills Rd.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Amtrak's Newport News trains do stop at Main St. Station. I believe that once the Southeast HSR is built to Raleigh, the other side of the station would be used as well.
A McIntosh Amtrak's Newport News trains do stop at Main St. Station. I believe that once the Southeast HSR is built to Raleigh, the other side of the station would be used as well.
Maybe the folks from Saint Louis should visit the Brandywine Art Museum in Delaware. It seems the famous Howard Pyle painting, "The Battle of Bunker Hill" has gone missing and the museum staff has no idea where it is. Lost? Stolen? Who knows? Those Saint Louis folks just might get lucky and find it.
If you've seen any historys of the Revolution, especially the "American Heritage" book you've seen the painting.
I can't believe they lost it either. I'm shaking my head over that one.
Classic era: SAL-RF&P thorough trains used Main Street
C&O Main Street. ACL-RF&P Broad Sreet. RF&P terminating and starting Broad Street
I wasn't talking about Main St. I was referring to the beautiful old Broad St Station vs that shoe box at Staples Mill Rd.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Street_Station_(Richmond)
Wellllll, in a way you CAN still see trains at Richmond's old Broad Street Station. Once a year in November as the Christmas season approaches local model railroad clubs set up displays in the lobby area. A lot of fun to see!
'Round back there's some static displays of old RF&P cars, plus a C&O "Kanawha" steam locomotive, although the "Kanawha" isn't in the best of shape.
Yes, that "bus stop" on Staples Mill Road is a sorry excuse for a train station, but what are you gonna do? At least the old Broad Street Station wasn't torn down when it had out-lived its usefulness as a train station.
I posted it only as an example of why we shouldn't count on service being returned to a rebuilt old station.
They spent a lot of money on the new riverfront station and the elevators / escalators connecting it to the St. Louis Light Rail system on the bluff overlooking it Restoration of service to the old station would mean a backup move through a wye into the stub tracks (unless the train was push-pull) so I doubt that would be seen as an improvement. Last I rode the Texas Eagle I believe the Wye to the old station was still connected to the approach tracks to the new Riverfront Station so thats how they can continue to handle excursion trains and private cars there. However, I doubt Amtrak will switch unless they go to push pull trains on the Chicago - St. Louis route and make both station stops.
There is a youtube video of the UP Business Train backing over the wye and parking in the station at St. Louis complete with their E9's as power.
Is the StL Riverfront station decent? Willl it handle the upsurge in business when the high speed work is completed and service improved?
Main Street is older, opening in 1901, serving C&O and SAL; Broad Street opened in 1919, serving ACL and RF&P, (Richmond Terminal handled the switching), and SAL near the end. Add SCL, then Amtrak to the mix. At least these two magnificent structures still stand. Brandy
Re: DEGGESTY
"Yes, as Schlimm says, it is a grand structure, which I did not get to until in June of 1968. Even then, I was able to eat breakfast in the restaurant before taking the Abraham Lincoln to Chicago after coming in overnight from Birmingham on the IC. I was on my way from where I lived in Alabama to a meeting in Montreat (just across the Blue Ridge from Asheville), North Carolina. Even though it had lost some of its grandeur, I still enjoyed seeing it."
________________
Emphasis mine
First: Montreat is not across the Blue Ridge from Asheville. It is located just north of Black Mountain and west of Ridgecrest (the top of the Blue Ridge divide) and hence on the same side of the Blue Ridge as Asheville.
Second: On your trip from Alabama to Montreat, why did you go by way of St. Louis and Chicago? I would love to hear a detailed description of that journey.
Thanks!
First: Black Mountain and Montreat are east of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Second: Why did I go by way of St. Louis and Chicago? To ride lines that I had never ridden before--IC North Cairo to St. Louis, GM&O St. Louis to Chicago, and B&O Chicago to Washington. I used vacation time to cover the additional mileage.
VERY INTERESTING STORY. Mom rode trains out of Union from the time she was a kid, born 1909. Her dad was Frisco conductor and she talked about how busy it was in the old days. Even when my parents & I took trips in the late 50's and early 60's, it was still a busy place. Glad they found this mural. The new owners are very committed to trains, hope to get an excursion one to return like we had Rail Cruise America for a few years. They welcomed the KCS Xmas train this past Dec with events and will be hosting the first ever Train Day event there this May, sounds like a lot of things are planned for that. Previous events have always been held at Kirkwood, MO station, downtown Amtrak has done nothing.
I do not see Amtrak ever moving back into Union, now that they finally have a new decent station that they share with Greyhound. There's only a couple of tracks left at Union on the far end, the rest is parking and cafes. It was a bustling place for a few years, then too many kids came and caused problems and people started drifting away, that's happened in malls around town too. Many now have curfews for that reason.
There is a nice Museum in Union left by the previous owners, Mom and I wrote memories that were on display for years, but I don't see them now.
Look forward to seeing what will finally develop when they are finished with renovations. It's always been a first class hotel, different owners, so don't expect that to change.
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