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Union Station at 75
This Saturday, May 3, Los Angeles’ Union Station celebrates its 75th anniversary. Back on May 3, 1939, an estimated 500,000 people attended the Union Station dedication and parade.
In a May 4, 1939, front-page story, Los Angeles Times columnist Ed Ainsworth reported on the Union Station activities:
Everybody but Casey Jones was down at the new depot yesterday.
And Casey was dead!
It was just like the 5 o’clock flyer highballing through “on time.” Nobody was surprised. But, boy, wasn’t she a beauty!
After all, it wasn’t exactly an $11,000,000 Union Station with a highfaluting name that Los Angeles was dedicating. It was folks from 10,000 little towns all going down to their own little depots in Memory Town to listen to the whistle toot and to hear that great big bell.
Of course they had scads of railroad presidents cluttering up the place. They had millionaires and fellows with private railroad cars. They had Governors and Mayors and brass hats in droves.
Yet it was really just the people of America–from all the 48 States–who really drove the spike that nailed down a chunk of history on Alameda St. yesterday noon.
Nobody really could have been expected to be surprised. The rumor had got around that there was a big new palace of transportation down there by the old Los Angeles River just waiting to be dedicated.
But, surprise or no surprise, 500,000 persons more or less jammed and pushed and fought along Alameda St. for many many blocks to see a dream come right before their eyes.
They knew the Southern Pacific, the Santa Fe and the Union Pacific railroads had united and built that handsome Spanish structure with the tower and the olive trees and the padded seats and the loudspeaker system and all the rest. They knew it was going to introduce the world to Los Angeles and the Old Plaza. But they still wanted to be there to see it happen. They wanted to see the past come boiling up like the smoke out of the funnel stacks of the old wood-burning engines.
And to see it they hung in trees. They swarmed on ancient red brick cornices that had resounded with cheers for Civil War heroes and Presidents. They climbed on one another’s toes and swung from poles…
The opening was a major success. The above photo gallery includes images from the construction, dedication and parade. Also included are later images from the 1940s and ’50s of Union Station.
For more, check out this Nov. 22, 2013, Postcards from the West online story: Union Station Bustles with film plots. Travel writer Christopher Reynolds and staff photographer Mark Boster produced this excellent piece. In addition, in 2013, Boster completed an architectural series of 10 black and white images shot on film – included in the above gallery.
For more on this Saturday’s celebration, visit Metro’s website.
- TAGS: FROM THE ARCHIVES :: GALLERY :: LOS ANGELES :: BLACK & WHITE
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