Cincinnati Union Station

[Larry]

Here's some photo's of Cincinnati's Union Station on Flickr that I found linked to at another forum. Contemporary architecture just doesn't stand up.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/union_terminal/sets/72157601268262268/

~ Larry

 

[davestlouis]

I went there once when the Museum Center first opened...beautiful building.

www.cincymuseum.org

 

[79CJ]

If you fly through CVG (the Cincinnati airport that is actually in Northern Ky), you can see some of the murals that they have moved from Union Station to the airport terminal.

 

[clubwitsend]

Union Terminal has been one of my favorite Cincinnati places since I was a kid! I try to make it back when I'm back in town visiting the parents. I miss the ice cream parlor, though...they used to have this amazing ice cream place that still had all of this original signage/decor in it...but it's been closed for awhile now.

 

[davestlouis]

I have my 25th high school reunion in Cincinnati this coming October, maybe I'll try to hit Union Station while I'm in town...if I bother to go to the reunion in the first place.

 

[79CJ]

I have my 25th high school reunion in Cincinnati this coming October, maybe I'll try to hit Union Station while I'm in town...if I bother to go to the reunion in the first place.

If you don't mind me asking, where did you go to high school/ whereabout in Cincinnati are you from? I grew up on the East side of town and went to McNicholas HS.

 

[davestlouis]

I'm from WAY out on the west side, grew up really close to Oak Hills HS, but went to St X, class of 85.

www.stxavier.org

 

[DecoDame]

Just discovered that the old Cincinnati Union Terminal which is now housing the Cincinnati Museum (and one of THE best examples of art deco architecture in the whole country and my absolute personal favorite), is hosting a 1940s Weekend event this weekend August 9 & 10.

They have a lot of events going on, inside and out, including period music and dancing and an antique car show, and it's a chance to poke around some parts of the building I haven't been in yet. Looks like fun. We'll probably go on Sunday and check it out.

 

[scotrace]

Wish I could be there!

 

[DecoDame]

I believe it's an annual thing, so you'll have to plan on next year, Scotrace.

If I'm organized (ie: I remember to take the damned camera), I may take some pics to share here, for vicarious attendance.

 

[DecoDame]

Wanted to share some pics of our Sunday at the 1940s Weekend event. I didn’t take a lot of photos – too busy soaking it in – but here are a few…

They had the fountains in front going, which I’d never seen before (I believe any time I had been there before was “off season”). That was a real treat. I was glad to see they were still working. Pics without and with me, happy as a (baked) clam:


Here’s a few of the best (imo) participants in the costume contest:


The live band was put in the main rotunda. While that put the dancing right in the thick of things, the acoustics of the 180 foot domed ceiling distorted the hell out of the music, unfortunately, making it sound like a dozen elephants mating. Loudly. But the dancers were great and enthusiastic, and the band obviously knew what they were doing. A blurry take of some of the dancers:


Most of the concurrent displays (on wartime salvage, period food etc) were pretty modest, but there was a collection of antique bikes there, that were all very nice to look at. We found out the bike museum they came from is much closer to us, in Dayton, so we’re planning a trip soon to see their whole collection. A few choice ones:


This is a bit of the carved linoleum art outside the ladies room near the old dining hall. Gorgeous. I love that panther.


The highlight of the day was finally thinking to take the guided tour. It included the upstairs balcony looking over the rotunda floor and the preserved president’s and secretary’s office. Having seen period photos in books, actually walking in the space was wonderful. I was too entranced to even think about photos, so I’ll include one I found on-line (much better than I would have managed anyway) of the President’s office:


Unfortunately, the terminal/museum is facing preservation problems right now. Some ill advised “improvements” during the 80s by the then tenant, has made the building vulnerable to water infiltration that is slowly eroding the structure. A straight up historical crime. There is a movement to fund the needed restoration, but it’s hit a wall of stubborn politics there. If anyone is interested in getting involved, you can contact the “Save Our Icons” site (they are also trying to save Cincinnati’s grand Music Hall, built in the 1880s).


Anyway, I had a great time, overall, and welcome any excuse to visit my personal Deco “cathedral”.

 

[Fading Fast]

DecoDame - thank you for a wonderful set of pictures. I love that the fountains were working. That office is deco insane - the woodwork must have been incredible in person since it is incredible in the photo. Hard to believe there was ever a time they were doing things like that. I have been in a few CEO offices today and, none, not one, are at that level of detail and excellence. Wow.

 

[DecoDame]

Fading Fast, you're welcome - An interesting thing about the offices, they were pretty small in size. The President's office was not much larger than the secretary's just outside the door, and they were both much smaller than the "bigger is more impressive" trap that modern offices often fall into. Instead of trying to impress with sheer size, they dazzled with incredible detail. Nothing was "off the shelf". All the hardware was costume, even the torpedo shaped hinges to the door. The craftsmenship was something to see. And they used cork flooring, which I wasn't aware was really used before the big 90s boom of popularity (used alone, that is, obviously it was used in linoleum).

Here are a few pics I pulled off flickr, of the door hardware and the fireplace. The andirons shown were lost for many years. It was part of the great purge in the 80s when the new tenants came in and started throwing some of the original furnishings in the dumpsters! Some salvagers came by regularly to rescue some of it, one being the andirons. When this person heard the offices were being properly restored, he returned them (there is a set back now in the president's room and the boardroom). Thank god for people like that. A gorgeous hatstand that was returned shows its battle scars by one of the hooks being broken off where it did a header into the dumpster (this info was shared during the tour by the guide).

 

[DecoDame]

Sorry - the andirons didn't want to load:

 

[Fading Fast]

Fading Fast, you're welcome - An interesting thing about the offices, they were pretty small in size. The President's office was not much larger than the secretary's just outside the door, and they were both much smaller than the "bigger is more impressive" trap that modern offices often fall into. Instead of trying to impress with sheer size, they dazzled with incredible detail. Nothing was "off the shelf". All the hardware was costume, even the torpedo shaped hinges to the door. The craftsmenship was something to see. And they used cork flooring, which I wasn't aware was really used before the big 90s boom of popularity (used alone, that is, obviously it was used in linoleum).

Here are a few pics I pulled off flickr, of the door hardware and the fireplace. The andirons shown were lost for many years. It was part of the great purge in the 80s when the new tenants came in and started throwing some of the original furnishings in the dumpsters! Some salvagers came by regularly to rescue some of it, one being the andirons. When this person heard the offices were being properly restored, he returned them (there is a set back now in the president's room and the boardroom). Thank god for people like that. A gorgeous hatstand that was returned shows its battle scars by one of the hooks being broken off where it did a header into the dumpster (this info was shared during the tour by the guide).

View attachment 16845

Awesome information - and, yes, what a nice person that was to do that, cares more about the integrity of the restoration than his / her own desire to have the door hardware (not a lot of those people around anymore).

In NYC, there is a bar in Grand Central Terminal that, back in the 1920s, was the personal office of one of the New York Central's Board of Directors (he personally paid to have it decorated - or so the story goes). Very different style - and it is a giant space - no subtly here like the Cincinnati office, but very cool to see. Below are a few pictures; Google Images has many, many more. The bar is stupid expensive, but my girlfriend and I will go a few times a year to have a drink just to see the space.

 

[filfoster]

Some may know of the urgent need for about $150MM to restore and maintain this gem. It's been given a funding tax by the City but will it be enough? Hope so.
My mom left here, by herself, to go to California in 1940 to be with my Dad who was in Army training in California. He'd dropped out of Ohio State in his Junior yeer in response to the call for volunteers for the war everyone saw coming. It was the adventure of her life and she never tired of talking about the many kindnesses of the people she encountered on that trip.
I was lucky enough to take a train ride from my small hometown of Williamsburg, Ohio about 30 miles to the station when I was about 8. Mostly recall flushing the toilets over and over because they emptied out directly onto the track! A different world. That rail line was on the 'Pumpkin vine' operated by the Norfolk & Western (now Norfolk & Southern, a fine company by the way) and they operated steam until early '60 or '61. I used to watch these huge smoky beasts slowly rumble through town near my grandmother's house. Wow. What a trip down memory lane. I'm tired and must sit down now.

 

[DecoDame]

Thanks, filfoster, for that first hand experience. I've taken the Amtrack train out of Cincy the last few years, the last actual train related business they have going on there (which tends to leave the station at 2AM) - but that's just a taste of its former grandeur before it was initially shut down. Your experience was before they tore down the grand concourse, then? I forget the exact year that crime occurred. That would've been something to see...

And Fading Fast, that is a great looking bar! We went thru Grand Central on our trip to NYC recently, but didn't know about the bar. I'll have to file that away for (hopefully) future trips.

(The concourse where you boarded the trains - which is sadly no more)

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Most of the concurrent displays (on wartime salvage, period food etc) were pretty modest, but there was a collection of antique bikes there, that were all very nice to look at. We found out the bike museum they came from is much closer to us, in Dayton, so we’re planning a trip soon to see their whole collection. A few choice ones:

View attachment 16756

I love the 1951 J.C. Higgins Colorflow.

 

[Fading Fast]

Thanks, filfoster, for that first hand experience. I've taken the Amtrack train out of Cincy the last few years, the last actual train related business they have going on there (which tends to leave the station at 2AM) - but that's just a taste of its former grandeur before it was initially shut down. Your experience was before they tore down the grand concourse, then? I forget the exact year that crime occurred. That would've been something to see...

And Fading Fast, that is a great looking bar! We went thru Grand Central on our trip to NYC recently, but didn't know about the bar. I'll have to file that away for (hopefully) future trips.

(The concourse where you boarded the trains - which is sadly no more)
View attachment 17806

The bar is definitely worth trying (for one expensive drink) - it is in the terminal, but a bit out of the way. If you ask when you are there, you'll have no problem finding it. And the above concourse picture is outrageous. Nothing built today has such beautiful interior architecture.