Union Station building’s centennial being recognized with yearlong celebration
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- Union Station in Ogden, photographed Friday, Sept. 15, 2023.
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- A mural in the Grand Lobby of Ogden’s Union Station, created by Edward Laning before his 1981 death, photographed Monday, Jan. 29, 2024.
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- A Union Station passenger canopy, which dates back to the 1920s, photographed Monday, Jan. 29 2024.
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- The south side of the Union Station building in Ogden, photographed Monday, Jan. 29, 2024.
OGDEN — It was once said that “You can’t go anywhere without coming to Ogden,” a phrase that owes its roots to city’s background as a major railroad hub dating to the 19th century. And the building at the center of that rich history is celebrating an important anniversary.
Construction on the Union Station building that currently stands at the west end of Historic 25th Street on Wall Avenue was completed 100 years ago this fall. And Ogden City has designs on acknowledging that centurylong history throughout 2024.
The “Heart of Ogden” exhibit, which includes life-sized panels featuring photos and stories capturing Union Station’s history, opened in November 2023 and the free exhibit will remain open through all of 2024.
Meanwhile, several events marking station milestones have been scheduled. Among them are a May 25 celebration of the day the building’s first bricks were laid, a Sept. 28 event acknowledging the building’s final construction and, on Nov. 22 and 23, there will be a two-day event marking its dedication.
“Union Station has historically been the heart of Ogden,” Hope Eggett, the museum curator at Union Station, told the Standard-Examiner. “Before the station was built, Ogden was very rural. After the station was built, it completely transformed our city’s layout, its structures — politically, socially, physically and economically.”
Of course, Union Station itself predates the current building by several decades.
Following the Golden Spike ceremony, during which lines from the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads were joined together at Promontory Summit in 1869, there was need for a junction city in a less remote area.
The first permanent, large-scale Union Station building was completed 20 years later, the construction of which was overseen by the Ogden Union Railway & Depot Co.
It replaced a two-story, wood-frame building on the shore of the Weber River that had previously served as the local terminal and was ill-suited for handling the heavy train and passenger load of a major rail hub.
However, a fire that began in one of the station’s hotel rooms would destroy the second building’s interior in 1923. When plans to patch up the damage were later abandoned, work began on the structure that’s now being celebrated.
Famed father-son architectural firm John and Donald Parkinson — whose works include buildings like Los Angeles City Hall, LA Memorial Coliseum and the Union rail terminal in LA, among numerous others — designed the new Union Station in the Spanish Colonial Revival style.
The golden age of rail travel at Union Station extended from the 1920s to the 1950s; at one point, an estimated 10,000 monthly passengers moved through the depot. From 1942-’46, the Ogden Red Cross Canteen served 1.6 million soldiers traveling through the station amid World War II.
In 1971, Union Pacific put an end to its 105-year run of passenger rail service in the U.S. However, Union Station continued to see Amtrak trains until 1997, when the Pioneer became the last long-distance passenger train to stop at the station.
Today, the Union Station building houses the Utah State Railroad Museum, the Browning Firearms Museum, the Browning-Kimball Car Museum and two art galleries. Meanwhile, Ogden City has plans to revitalize the building and the area surrounding it.
The city has owned the building itself since the mid-1970s, later purchasing the land underneath and surrounding it in December 2022. Now, there are multiple redevelopment concepts being considered for the Union Station campus.
The next “Community Conversation” event regarding the Union Station Neighborhood development is scheduled to occur Feb. 28.
“I’m really hopeful that this development can bring more people into the building, more vitality, and kind of restore it to the place that it used to be in Ogden,” Eggett said. “If we think about what the nation looked like in the ’40s and ’50s, there were thousands of people moving through the station every day. I’d love to see as many people as we can get into the building.
“I think these development plans are really spectacular for trying to make Union Station the heart of Ogden again.”
Officials from Ogden City could not be reached for comment on redevelopment plans.