Union Station, New Haven CT
Main entrance
The first Union Station in New Haven CT, a depot building designed by prominent local architect Henry Austin, opened to the public in 1848 by the New York-New Haven Railroad. The Italianate inspired building sat above the railroad cut on the old Farmington Canal, located on State St next to Custom House Square. The deficiencies in the station’s design were thick soot and flames on all the platforms.
New York-New Haven Railroad merged with the Hartford-New Haven Railroad in 1872. Re-decorated in 1874 in 2nd French Empire style, the station stood at the site of the Union Station parking garage, 2ks from New Haven Green on the old marshlands. It was later destroyed by fire.
The Austin-designed landmark was converted to a bustling city market. Its size and closeness to rail and Long Wharf, along with being in New Haven’s growing dry goods district, made this a popular shopping area. But in 1894, fire destroyed the old depot.
A station was built from 1917 for the New York-New Haven-Hartford Railroad. Designed by noted architect Cass Gilbert, it was completed and opened in 1920. It was thus the second station in its location on Union Ave, and the third major passenger station to serve New Haven. [Gilbert’s other famous works included NY’s Woolworth Building, tallest building in the world from 1913-30, and Washington DC’s U.S Supreme Court Building].
Union Station was a great name because it was a union point of various rail services and companies. In the New York-New Haven-Hartford Railroad heyday, the station was designed as a physical symbol of the Company’s size and strength.
waiting room, long oak benches, high, arched windows
and gilded, coffered ceiling
Gilbert’s 1918-20 station was closed to train travellers, amid plans for its demolition. Union Station deserved better. Conceived by Gilbert as a grand entry to the city, New Haven’s new train station was to be monumental in the Beaux Arts tradition first made popular in the U.S by the Chicago World Columbian Exposition of 1893 and exemplified by terminals like New York’s 1913 Grand Central Terminal. Unlike Grand Central, New Haven’s Union Station was to have a proper setting. Travellers would exit the station and plaza via a broad boulevard, the terminus of which was to be another plaza on the edge of the city’s original square. This was described in a 1910 report to the Civic Improvement Commission, by Gilbert and landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmstead.
But a grand plan was not the priority of Mayor then; implementing a plan of its scale would have required great vision and substantial financial resources. Worse still, the mayor and citizens backing the plan were fighting. There was no plaza in front of Union Station and no boulevard linking it to the CBD.
But where the public sector failed, the private sector succeeded. Since 1900 New York-New Haven-Hartford Railroad, which controlled most New England transportation south of the Massachusetts Turnpike, had been strongly investing in expansion. The railroad company built a new station in Providence in 1898 and the new Boston South Station in 1899. From 1903-13 the improvements cost heaps. It also rebuilt and electrified the line from New Haven to New York, increasing it from 2 from 4 tracks, backed by financier JP Morgan.
The front entrance was a bit boring. See Melbourne's impressive station entrance, largely from the same era but remember that Melbourne's station sits on a big corner!
Ticket sales windows
But a grand plan was not the priority of Mayor then; implementing a plan of its scale would have required great vision and substantial financial resources. Worse still, the mayor and citizens backing the plan were fighting. There was no plaza in front of Union Station and no boulevard linking it to the CBD.
But where the public sector failed, the private sector succeeded. Since 1900 New York-New Haven-Hartford Railroad, which controlled most New England transportation south of the Massachusetts Turnpike, had been strongly investing in expansion. The railroad company built a new station in Providence in 1898 and the new Boston South Station in 1899. From 1903-13 the improvements cost heaps. It also rebuilt and electrified the line from New Haven to New York, increasing it from 2 from 4 tracks, backed by financier JP Morgan.
The front entrance was a bit boring. See Melbourne's impressive station entrance, largely from the same era but remember that Melbourne's station sits on a big corner!
New Haven’s station was projected to cost $1.5 mill. But by 1918, WWI and post-war inflation reduced the buying power of the railroad’s money. Costs had to be cut. Earlier Gilbert studies for the exterior show a more robust modelling of the entry façade, with 4 projecting piers of paired columns with monumental sculptures framing 3 heroic, recessed arched portals. In May 1918 the station burned down, and was replaced 2 years on an adjacent lot by the current station.
Gilbert cited the marble cladding and ornament used in Waterbury City Hall CT, but on a much grander scale. Those façade had a strong but simple cornice, undoubtedly intended as marble but executed in terra cotta. Even so great care was taken in obtaining maximum character from the great arches and carefully articulated brickwork. The 1983-6 restoration by Herbert Newman Architects revived Gilbert’s original design. The station’s interior was New Haven’s grandest room, at 115’ long with a great gilded, coffered ceiling. The walls appeared to be travertine.
After WW2 the New York-New Haven-Hartford Railroad declined, due to direct federal support of auto and air travel. Union Station was shuttered in 1972, leaving only the section under the tracks open to passengers. By the 1970s, Union Station was closed and threatened with demolition. Local citizens successfully rallied to add the building to National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Faced with the growing costs of the 1970s energy crisis, the federal government developed the N.E Corridor Improvement Project.
Union Station again faced demolition, but it was renovated during the 1980s and re-opened in 1985. The newly rehabilitated Union Station continues to function normally today.
The New Union Ave station appeared grand, evoking a regal hotel and luxurious railroad travel. But its site was inconvenient and derided. The coastline came right up to the station, causing costly repairs.
Passengers go from the waiting room and ticket areas at ground level,
down the elevators to the platforms below
In Ap 2020, Union Station celebrated its anniversary. For 100 years it has been a travel cornerstone in Connecticut, a historic and architectural treasure powering the state’s economic development. Union Station connects the New Haven Line running into New York, while the Hartford Line heads north to Hartford and Springfield. It is also a key link on Amtrak’s N.E Corridor, from Boston to Washington and on.
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17 comments:
The stations all have classic design and architecture
Union Station showed that the building didn't have to be the most decorated railway facility anywhere. The coffered ceiling is rich enough
So much effort put into something so utilitarian ,but why not? Even if we don't stop to admire it, it can still have subliminal effect on us.
roentare
Yes!! Once train travel in America became significant, major rail-line architects all wanted to design magnificent stations with sky-high features, grand halls and gold-draped walls. The train stations themselves were classic enough to attract tourists in their own right.
Train Man
Which of the very special American stations have you seen? Grand Central Station NY is spectacular, as is Union Station Washington DC, Union Station Chicago and and Union Station L.A, the largest and most modern giant railroad passenger terminal. Union Station in New Haven CT must have been built earlier and for less money, but it is still very elegant.
jabblog
I am not sure that the U.S was sold on public transport back in the 19th century and even now. So Union Station New Haven had to be safe, not hugely expensive and beautiful enough to attract travellers who really would have preferred private transport. Of course this argument only applies to the US, not to nations that love their public transport systems.
Hello Hels, When I used the New Haven train station (US$8 for a ticket to Grand Central in New York City, even less for destinations in Connecticut), as far as I recall all of the decorated areas were closed off or inaccessible. Or perhaps I was always rushed and not quite sure which track and gate I needed. Additionally, the longish walk from the New Haven Green to the train station was hardly through New Haven's garden area. Here is a colored picture of Austin's original Italianate design:
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tm7YHHk1wmM/Udc8kCN_B3I/AAAAAAAABNU/TYEuBlt9wnQ/s1600/1777593.jpg
I don't remember anything beautiful about the New Haven station, but coming up from the trains into the main concourse of Grand Central was always an inspiring sight.
--Jim
The only impressive railway stations I visited were in Moscow. She has some 9 railway stations.
Both the Metro Stations and the train stations are very beautiful!
Parnassus
when you say "the longish walk from the New Haven Green to the train station was hardly through New Haven's garden area", do you think they were intentionally keeping the Great Unwashed away from New Haven's most beautiful areas? At least coming up from the trains into the main concourse of Grand Central was always an inspiring sight :) What about now?
Thanks for the reference to Austin's original railway station; it looks like Italianate design mixed with other inspirations.
DUTA
My family was Russian, but I have never visited. So I looked at all the images I could find of Moscow's main railway stations and have to agree... they look amazing! So I will have to write a blog post later this year about the one that has the most interesting history and the most attractive art and architecture. Leningradsky, Yaroslavsky and Kazansky Railway Stations, all located together on Komsomolskaya Square, are very different from New Haven.
NF SKIN
thanks for reading about the railway architecture, but no advertising please.
I wonder why you haven't been coming up in my reading list Hels. I need to check into that. It is a shame what has happened to so many old train stations in the US. Some of the old wooden ones near me have been turned into homes, and just this past Sunday I discovered one near me that has been turned into a museum. THis was an interesting read. I'm off to check what else I've missed. Happy May to you.
Erika
I am very glad many of the old train stations you saw have been saved or repurposed, and not torn down to become an ugly fast food outlet or carpark. But does that mean that people are using private transport much more now, and using public trains much less?
Boa noite e boa quinta-feira.
Infelizmente aqui no Brasil, algumas estações de trem foram destruídas.
Luiz Gomes.
Luiz
*nod* I know that happened in many central railway stations, even large and beautiful ones. What a shame to destroy important historical buildings.
My Hemp
thanks for reading the post, but no advertising please. Which was/is your favourite station?
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