Union Station Advocates Resources: Union Station History

Citizen participation in planning and governance of the public spaces at Denver Union Station

Union Station Advocates: Resources > History & Photos

This page provides selected narratives and photographs to help illuminate the rich history of Denver's Union Station depot.

Denver's Union Station: An Historical Overview

by Jim Graebner, USA Board Member and USAC Co-Chair

Colorado Railroad history starts in 1867, when the first rail was laid on Colorado soil and the first locomotive was operated near Julesburg. It was part of the Union Pacific’s line that connected with the Central Pacific from California in the famous “Golden Spike” ceremony, 1869. Contrary to a common myth, this did not create a true transcontinental railroad: a ferry trip was needed at Omaha to change trains and cross the Continent. In 1870, the Denver Pacific RR linked Denver to Cheyenne, thus saving Denver from becoming an economic backwater to Cheyenne. Later that year, Denver and Kansas City were connected, making the first true permanent transcontinental railroad from the East to West Coast. Denver and Colorado were now on the road to greatness.

Those were railroading days with continual fighting between the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers and the U.S. Army, with massacres of settlers and the operations of troops under Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and George Custer in the Julesburg to Denver area.

The first three railroad lines to enter Colorado were the Union Pacific, Denver Pacific and Kansas Pacific; the Denver and Rio Grande followed soon thereafter, as did the Colorado Central RR (Golden City to Denver. In the 1870’s, Denver had several railroad depots. The station at 40th and Gilpin Street opened in 1870 as the first of these. The station at 16th and Delgany was used by three railroads – sort of an early union station. Denver’s first railroad, the Kansas Pacific, used a station at 21st and Wazee, while the Denver Pacific‘s terminal was at the site of the present Denver Union Station.

Incorporated in 1879, the Union Depot Company began construction on a new terminal in 1880, and the facility opened for business by the middle of 1881 – a remarkably short time. The completed building was 503 feet long and 65 feet wide. Stone for the building came from several different Colorado sites. Interestingly, Colorado’s most famous railroad name – David Moffat – was not invited to bring his railroad into Union Station., and his little Moffat Station still stands.

Within a few years 60 trains arrived or departed from the station each day. It had truly become the gateway to the Mile-High City. It is safe to say that railroads built Colorado. The mining and agriculture of our State with Denver as the hub -and the attendant economic prosperity were dependent on rail. Visitors came to the State enjoy ride our rails and enjoy our scenic beauty. Denver developed an excellent streetcar system serving the Station, and this was a fully electrified system in 1886, even before London’s great subway system was electrified. The Central Platte Valley was filled with marshalling yards for access to the Station and to stockyards, packing plants and industrial goods (and with a resultant frequent strong foul odor.)

On March 18, 1894, fire destroyed most of the depot, but within about two months reconstruction was underway and was completed about a year later. Rail traffic continued to grow, and by 1914 the station was deemed too small. The center section of the old building was demolished and a new central waiting room built, a process which took about a year. The famous “Mizpah Arch” in front of the building at 17th Street, was built in 1906, and in 1931 it was demolished because of increasing auto traffic.

While many millions of people have used the station since it opened in 1881, some of the more memorable include Presidents Harding, Taft, Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower and both Teddy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. For many Denverites, their memorable moments included World War II when tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen who traveled through Denver by train decided to move here when the War ended.

Because of its great historic importance, its architectural character, and its monumentality and setting, Denver Union Station was designated in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, with the related Landmark protection

The Postwar boom in highway construction and public acceptance of the auto as the preferred mode of travel, Union Station rapidly dwindled in use. The rail yards gradually vanished. Amtrak and ski trains were the Station’s passenger major services. Although there have been many changes to the building throughout the ensuing years, including the addition of the signature “UNION STATION Travel by Train” sign in 1952, the building remains largely as built. Sadly, the grassy park which provided a park-like entrance on the Wynkoop side of the building was cut back to make room for the new center section, and the parks at both ends, with their mature trees were replaced by automobile parking lots.

The Regional Transportation District (RTD), present owner of the entire Union Station site and building, came on the scene in 1969, with the passage of legislation creating RTD. The District had express planning for the preservation of the Station as a free-standing monument and its revitalization as the transit system hub, and this was a factor in achieving a public vote to fund the start of the RTD system in 1973, In the early 1990’s there were proposals to do great developmental damage to the Station, and these were fended off by citizen protest. RTD, in planning for the site as the hub of a proposed major regional transit system, acquired ownership of the Station and, in 2002, RTD extended its very successful Light Rail transit and popular 16th Street Mall Shuttle bus to Union Station. In November 2004, the voters of the Metro Denver region approved that plan, called “FasTracks”, the largest single transit funding program in the history of our Nation. Never let it be said that our present citizenry does not have the same vision and courage of the 19th Century founders of Denver, Colorado’s railroads and our great Union Station.

Today, Denver Union Station, which celebrated its 125th birthday in 2006, is on the threshold of a new era of greatness.

Union Station Site History

from the 2004 Union Station Master Plan Report

The Importance of Rail to Denver’s Growth
The barrier of the Rocky Mountains has always influenced transportation and development in Colorado. The transcontinental railroad went through Cheyenne, and in 1870, a connection between Denver and Cheyenne was made, connecting Denver to both the east and west coasts via rail.

Railroads made the city’s prosperity possible, and the growth of the city into a Rocky Mountain metropolis ensured the economic success of railroads. Thanks to the steam locomotive and steel rails, Denver became one of the first and best examples of a major population and trading center far removed from water-based commerce.

The railroads usually met Denver between the river’s floodplain and the upland claimed by Downtown between Blake Street and Cherry Creek. Roughly parallel to the river, the main railroad alignment occupied the original Wewatta Street right-of-way. This alignment became the basis for the current Denver Union Station passenger-rail platforms.

After 1870, different railway companies built eight passenger depots around the city. To eliminate the cumbersome transfer of freight and passengers from one station to another, railroad interests incorporated the Denver Union Station and Railroad Company in 1879 and set upon constructing a consolidated passenger and freight-rail station.

Denver Union Station
For more than 120 years, Denver Union Station has been one of Downtown’s most visible landmarks. The station has undergone two major architectural transformations, along with many smaller additions, subtractions, and changes to tracks and platforms that have affected neighborhood circulation. A rather grand park-like space and a civic arch that once faced Wynkoop Street are both distant memories.

Designed by architect William E. Taylor, the first Denver Union Station building opened in 1881 with a 500-foot-long limestone-and-rhyolite facade set back 140 feet from Wynkoop Street. This building radiated a civic monumentality far beyond its relatively modest interior volumes.

On the Wynkoop Street side of Denver Union Station, an oblong outdoor space was given over to a large park-like lawn and perimeter rows of street trees. The entire space was edged by flagstone sidewalks and low wrought-iron fencing. At 17th Street, this area was interrupted by vehicle access and by a long walkway extending from the main passenger entry at the clock tower base toward Wynkoop.

Downtown grew quickly in the 1880s and early 1890s. This growth stopped with the silver crash of 1892, and resumed in 1900. Wynkoop Street evolved from a disparate collection of early frontier buildings into an imposing frontage of masonry-walled, timber-framed mercantile warehouses. The monumental nature of these warehouses seemed to increase the stature of the station’s park-like forecourt.

The original passenger-rail platforms on the west side of Denver Union Station were placed at roadbed level with grade crossings at 16th, 18th, and 19th Streets. The 16th Street viaduct was built between 1881 and 1889. Freight rail yards grew quickly to the south to warehouse termini along 15th Street. The one-story wings on Denver Union Station were added in 1892.

A fire on March 18, 1894, destroyed the interior of the building’s south and central portions. Reconstruction completed in 1895 preserved the building’s interior plan but greatly altered the exterior. In the then-au courant style of Romanesque Revival, a massive new tower crowned the vista down 17th Street. The building acquired a new, lower-pitched, hipped roof while architectural ornament from the original 1881 depot was removed. Unbroken for its 500-foot length, the new façade appeared much more monolithic, except for a large shed dormer, symmetrically placed around the new tower and crowned by two pyramidal caps above the flanking doors.

Through most of Denver Union Station’s life, passenger platforms held the western part of the Delgany Street (now Wewatta) right-of-way. With no other buildings in the way, the 500-foot-long western facade of DUS has created a memorable Downtown edge for years. From the Highlands Neighborhood and western approaches to downtown, DUS remains a prominent presence.

In the next 20 years, Denver’s economy and population exploded. DUS was pressed to keep up with the corresponding increase in railroad activity. By the century’s end, new baggage and express wings were added.

Twentieth Century: ‘Travel By Train’
In 1906, Denver Mayor Robert Speer dedicated the ornate “Welcome Arch” (also known as the Mizpah Arch) in front of Denver Union Station to greet travelers. Often called “Denver’s front door,” this 70- ton steel gateway was 65-feet high, 86-feet wide, and illuminated by 1,294 light bulbs. In 1931, the arch was deemed a traffic hazard and removed.

In 1914, Denver Union Station was expanded and remodeled to keep up with increasing traffic. The redesign by Denver architects Aaron Gove and Thomas Walsh created one of Denver’s finest Beaux-Arts/ Renaissance-Revival buildings. Sheathed in a granite façade and a wrought-iron canopy, the new interior volume combined the formerly separate functions of vestibule, hall, and waiting rooms, surrounded with a roughly symmetric arrangement of ticketing offices, toilets, a barber shop, and a parcel checkroom.

A new façade inspired by Roman triumphal arches replaced the Romanesque clock tower. This façade design was repeated on the western platform side. Inside, the lofty, light-filled Train Room created a major new public space.

The new central block dramatically changed open space fronting Denver Union Station along Wynkoop Street. The addition projected into the open space, effectively cutting it in half. At about that time, a tramway loop off Wynkoop Street encroached into the southern half of the park. The north side of the park was then eliminated for asphalt paving and parking to accommodate autos and trucks.

New baggage and passenger tunnels were constructed to provide grade-separated access to all platforms. Platforms were raised above the tracks, lengthened, and fitted with canopies. These changes severed access to the Central Platte Valley from 16th, 18th, and 19th Streets. Later a new passenger tunnel allowed arriving passengers to bypass the Train Room and go directly to Wynkoop Street. This fundamentally changed the original design’s simple through-circulation scheme for passengers.

Modern Times
In the 1920’s, major alterations essentially came to an end. Over time, restaurants, cafes, and leased office space replaced railroad-related functions such as baggage handling and administrative offices. The Colorado and Midland Model Railroad moved into the basement in 1933.

In the 1990s, the 16th and 20th Street viaducts were removed, once again altering Denver Union Station’s circulation. The one-story wings were removed in 1990. Passenger platforms were shortened to allow pedestrian and bicycle access from 16th Street into the Central Platte Valley. Twentieth Street was relocated below the main tracks and now connects into the Central Platte Valley.

Today, Denver Union Station is used by Amtrak, the Ski Train, RTD Regional Bus, RTD’s ‘C’ Line light rail, and the 16th Street Mall Shuttle. Restaurants occupy the north and south wings, with office space on the second and third floors. In the Train Room, a gift shop and cafe counter primarily serve Amtrak patrons.