Great Overland Station

Great Overland Station, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Union Pacific Railroad Passenger Depot, is a museum and former railroad station in Topeka, Kansas, United States. The station was built from 1925 to 27 and designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, whose firm designed over 20 Union Pacific Railroad stations from 1924 to 1931. The station's Free Classical Revival design uses terra cotta extensively and features a center pavilion with two increasingly smaller pavilions on either side. Passenger service to the station began in January 1927; almost 20,000 people attended the station's grand opening, and the new station was considered "one of the largest and finest stations west of the Missouri River".[2] In the later years of its train station life, it also hosted the passenger trains of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (Rock Island Lines). The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway 'Santa Fe' had its trains stop at its own Topeka station.[3]

Union Pacific Railroad Passenger Depot
Great Overland Station is located in Kansas
Great Overland Station
Great Overland Station is located in the United States
Great Overland Station
Location701 N. Kansas Ave., Topeka, Kansas
Coordinates39°3′58″N 95°40′10″W
Arealess than one acre
Built1925-27
ArchitectUnderwood, Gilbert Stanley
MPSRailroad Resources of Kansas MPS
NRHP reference No.02000492[1]
Added to NRHPOctober 1, 2002

Passenger trains

Decline

Passenger totals at the station declined through the 1950s and 1960s, and the last regular passenger service to the station ended in 1971. The Union Pacific Railroad repurposed the station as office space and a customer service center before abandoning the building in 1989. In 1992, a fire damaged the western part of the station; the same year, the group Railroad Heritage, Inc. (then known as Topeka Railroad Days, Inc.) agreed to consider renovating the station. The station was extensively rehabilitated from 2000 to 2002 and is now a railroad heritage museum.[2]

The Great Overland Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 1, 2002.[1]

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Union Pacific Railroad Passenger Depot". National Park Service. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
  3. Official Guide of the Railways December 1951, Index of Railroad Stations
  4. Official Guide of the Railways December 1951, Rock Island Lines section
  5. Official Guide of the Railways December 1951, Union Pacific section
Preceding station Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Following station
Topeka
toward Tucumcari
Tucumcari Rock Island Herington
Topeka
toward Teague
TeagueMinneapolis  Herington
Terminus North TopekaSt. Joseph  Elmont
toward St. Joseph
Preceding station Union Pacific Railroad Following station
Menoken
toward Denver
Kansas Pacific Railway Grantville


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