Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, Tracks & Shed, 800 North Alameda Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA

Significance: Union Station has been designated Los Angeles Cultural History Landmark No. 101. In 1980, it was entered on the National Register of Historic Places. The statement of significance from the National Register nomination reads: The Los Angeles Union Station is a very handsome landmark that is a milestone in architectural history and in the history of transportation in America. Although less than 50 years of age, the property is of exceptional important. Built when railroad passenger service was on the decline, it was the last of the great passenger terminals to be built in a monumental scale in a major American city. Because of this, plus its impressive appearance, it has been called "The Grand Finale of the Golden Age of Railroads in America." It combined three major railroad systems into one terminal in the heart of the city, using a stub-end track arrangement. Architecturally, the building is one of the finest expressions of the 1930s styling in this country. It skillfully combines Streamline Moderne with Spanish Colonial Revival to create an expression which is two-fold: the sleek, streamlined transportation imagery of the Moderne, highly appropriate to a center of railroad transportation, and the historical imagery of Spanish revival architecture, a major element of the Southern California cultural landscape. Integrity is almost totally intact, with original decoration, ornamentation, fixtures and furnishings still in place. Architecturally, it remains one of the great examples of its type and period in this country [National Register documentation, 1978-80]. This addendum covers only the train concourse, passenger tunnel, arrival lobby, reception hall, and exit arcade of Union Station. Structurally, these sections are part of the Baggage and Express Unit, situated at the rear of the main concourse. The plan of the entire terminal was considered to be unusual at the time it was constructed because the site required that the "head house" be placed alongside the tracks instead of at the end of the platform tracks, a more traditional layout. As a result, the station had to be a two-level plan "with the tracks at a sufficient elevation above the station floor to permit a passenger subway under the tracks" [Railway Age (RA), Jan. 1937:143; see also Bradley, 1979:72 and National Register documentation 1978-80]. Another feature of the overall plan considered to be unusual at the time was the placement of the baggage and express unit between the track layout and the main station building [RA, Jan. 1937:143]. Separation of the passenger departure and arrival area enabled foot traffic to move freely [Architectural Record (AR), Jan. 1941:134]. The decade of the 1940s was, by various accounts, Union Station's glory decade, in large part because the station was used as a principal terminal for moving troops to and from the Pacific Theater during World War II. Through the later war years, as many as 100 trains, including troop trains, arrived and departed from Union Station every 24 hours, a two-thirds increase over the normal 60 trains a day [NR documentation, 1978-80; Justice, 1977]. Historic photographs of views shot during these years show the train concourse full to overflowing with servicemen [Bradley, 1979:22; also see photographs 41 and 42]. Wartime fatalities also were returned stateside via Union Station; as many as 20 bodies per day reportedly came through the baggage department. In addition, during the late 1940s and early 1950s, many wartime refugees entered Los Angeles through Union Station [Justice, 1977].
Survey number: HABS CA-2158-A
Building/structure dates: ca. 1939 Initial Construction
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 80000811