Former Union Train Station in Jacksonville FL
Jacksonville Terminal Complex, Jacksonville Florida
- Categories:
- Florida
- Railroad Facility
- Passenger Station
- Kenneth Murchison
Jacksonville's emergence as a major transportation center began in the mid-nineteenth century. Major events of the 1880s were to ensure its future as one of Florida's great rail centers and terminal cities. Inland transportation between Florida and Georgia was firmly established with Henry Bradley Plant's 1879 purchase of the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad which he reorganized into the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway. The Live Oak (Florida) to Lawton (Georgia) Connector had been completed in March 1865 to facilitate the transport of Confederate supplies. The tracks were torn up at the end of the war, but relaid by October of 1866. By the early 1870s, this line was being operated by the owners of the Atlantic and Gulf and so it was included in Plant's reorganized Savannah, Florida and Western Railway. In 1881, Plant constructed the 75-mile Waycross Short Line between Waycross, Georgia, and Jacksonville, which gave Jacksonville more direct access to the North. The Savannah, Florida and Western Railway was the original and largest of the rail lines in the Plant System and a forerunner of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. The depot that served this line was known as the Waycross Depot or the Union Depot, since it also served the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad; it was located. in the approximate position of the current Seaboard Coast Line building.
As the end of the nineteenth century approached, Jacksonville felt the need for facilities that would link the several railroad lines coming into the city. As railroad transportation became more and more important around the country, the various large communication centers began consolidating railroad terminals into what were generally called Union Stations. As previously stated, there was a "Union Station" in Jacksonville as early as 1881. A movement was soon underway to build a larger Union Station, however; it began in earnest with the chartering of the Jacksonville Terminal Company in 1894 (Jacksonville Terminal Company, Original Charter). The officers of the Company included Henry Morrison Flagler, President (Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railroad), H. S. Haines, Vice-President (Savannah, Florida and Western Railway) and H. R. Duval, Treasurer (Florida, Central and Peninsular Railroad).
Plans were begun immediately for the construction of a new Union Station on lands located along McCoy's Creek. As soon as the charter was secured, filling in of the land was begun. In the summer of 1894, work on the train sheds was begun. However, a hurricane in September of that year destroyed all of the framing and construction had to begin again. The architect on the new Union Station was W.B.W. Howe, as indicated in an architect's sketch for the building which appears in the office of the Jacksonville Terminal Company. With the setback caused by the hurricane, only the train shed, "an enormous structure one-fifth of a mile long by 520 feet wide, with a transept 168 by 40 feet" was complete by 1895. The facility was opened to the public at this time, however, with the ticket office, waiting rooms, etc., housed in a temporary facility adjoining the construction site of the new terminal. This temporary facility, a two-story brick building which still stands adjacent to the terminal, is clearly designated as such on an 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. It is unclear from contemporary accounts of the opening of the "new depot" whether the structure was newly built or simply in new use as a depot. This depot served the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway, the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad, and the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway. The new Union Station, for which the construction contract was let to S. S. Leonard in June 1896, was opened to the public two years later in 1898 and differed somewhat from the architect's original sketch. This facility served the rail-traveling public of Jacksonville for the next 21 years.
Popular agitation for a new terminal began in the teens as the need for additional space and a "more presentable depot" increased. Considerable agitation between City officials, the local citizenry, and the terminal company arose over a suitable location for the new building. The city had selected a site on Myrtle Avenue and the terminal company favored the Lee Street site adjacent to the already existing depot. The decision was made to use the Lee Street site and competitive drawings were submitted for the design of the new terminal. Kenneth M. Murchison of New York submitted the winning design. With the positioning of the new terminal, the 1895 train sheds were removed and some alterations were made to the 1898 terminal. The contract for the new terminal was let to Irwin and Leighton of Philadelphia, and the building cost was approximately $2,500,000. The Jacksonville Terminal and its new baggage facility were connected to the 1898 station, causing the alterations to the earlier building. Consisting of stub end and through tracks, over twenty in number, the new terminal served the Southern Railway, the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line Railroads (which merged to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad on July 1st, 1967), and the Florida East Coast Railroad. The building was open to the public at 12:01 a.m. on November 17th, 1919 with little celebration or fanfare). It continued to serve passenger traffic until January 4th, 1974 and since that time the building has been in disuse.
Site Description
There were four "Union Stations" which served the rail-traveling public of Jacksonville between 1881 and 1974. They were:
1) The Waycross or Union Depot built in 1881 by Henry Bradley Plant to serve the Waycross Short Line. This frame building was located on the approximate site of the present Seaboard Coast Line Building.
2) The two-story brick building used as a temporary passenger station in 1895, when the train shed associated with the 1898 Union Station was complete, but the depot was not. This temporary station is still standing, although it is slated for immediate demolition. Available documentation has not established whether this building was constructed by the Jacksonville Terminal Company for temporary use or whether it was a pre-existent mercantile building which was merely converted for use as a depot until the Union Station was complete.
3) The 1898 Union Station, which is still standing. It was altered when the 1919 terminal was constructed.
4) The 1919 Jacksonville Terminal Building and baggage facility. It is still standing.
There are numerous other structures within the rail yard which were built over a period of years to serve both the 1898 and 1919 stations. The most interesting of these is the ten-stall reinforced concrete roundhouse which was built in 1907 by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. Containing a 100 foot turntable, the building was used to service passenger engines only. The building is in complete disuse, the machine shop and all equipment have been removed, and the structure is seriously deteriorated.
1898 Union Station
As originally constructed, the Union Station differed somewhat from the only available architect's sketch. However, since the sketch may have been preliminary and since the actual drawings are not available, a description of the building as it eventually materialized should suffice. Facing on West Bay Street and occupying the entire block between Stuart and Johnson Streets, the terminal was designed in a modified Italian Villa style. By the time of its construction, there were other depots in this style which may have served as examples, the most notable being the Calvert Station in Baltimore, Maryland (constructed in 1855 and demolished in 1950). The Jacksonville station was (and the remainder still is) rectangular in plan. It is of brick construction with a stucco exterior painted in a light buff color. In sharp contrast is the darker color of all of the decorative trim, including water tables, window sills and arches and door surrounds. The entire structure is one story, and originally had two two-story towers fronting on Bay Street. In keeping with the Italianate theme the building employs semi-circular arches over windows and doorways, with those over the doors taking the form of hoodmolds terminating in label stops. Main entrances to the building were in the north and east sides of the Bay Street towers and were recessed into spacious arched openings with multi-paned lunettes above (see early photographs below). The arches over these doorways, along with the series of doorways occurring along the east elevations of the building, created the effect of an arcade. The continuity of this visual effect is further heightened by the fact that there are double-string courses at the first and second-floor levels. Within the towers, two additional string courses appeared, one in conjunction with the tripartite window groupings and another at the mid-point of the tower between window tops and eaves. Roofing was pitched on all of the wings with the gable ends abutting the towers. The towers had tow-hipped roofs. All of the firewalls within the building terminate in parapets.
The interior of the terminal consisted of a baggage room and express office within the area flanked by the towers. Terminal offices were located in the second floor of the remaining tower. The westernmost section contained a general waiting room, store rooms, dining room, and kitchen.
1919 Jacksonville Terminal
Completed in 1919, this building is constructed of reinforced concrete with a limestone veneer. The depot is one story and measures 72 feet by 360 feet. The east or main elevation of the building is dominated by a Doric portico which measures 23 feet by 200 feet. At the front of the portico fourteen colossal columns with limestone shafts resting on polished granite plinths rise to a molded architrave, a frieze bearing the words "JACKSONVILLE TERMINAL" in bronze letters and a dentilled cornice terminating in a low parapet wall. At each end of the portico are a pair of full-scale pilasters flanking lighting fixtures of bronze resting on granite bases. Within the portico is a three-bay composition of windows and doors. Each bay contains a large window with a metal frame and sash which is set into a semi-circular arched opening rising to a height exceeding that of the portico. Window surrounds, including the keystone, are of limestone. Set beneath each window is a grouping of three pairs of wooden doors set into metal frames with a metal grille infilling the transom which spans the distance above each door grouping. The ceiling of the portico is coffered. Flanking the portico on the north and south sides are the wings of the building. Rising from a granite base are the limestone ashlar walls with a series of small wooden sash windows covered by flat cast iron canopies suspended from metal chain. Above each canopy is a series of five 20-light industrial windows with metal frames and sash with an indented panel above. All windows, above and below the canopies, are in perfect alignment. The wings terminate in architrave and cornice, as does the central block. The wings of the building have flat roofs, whereas the central block has a ridge roof with east and west gable ends and a multi-gabled parapet on the north and south elevations. There is one large round arched window in both the north and south ends of the building repeating the treatment used on the main facade. The rear or west elevation also repeats the east front with a series of three round-arched glazed openings with gabled parapet above. Below these an eight-bay shed roofed structure covers the concourse between the passenger station and the tracks. The concourse measures 50 feet by 290 feet.
The interior of the terminal consists of a large waiting area which fills the entire central block of the building. Originally this area had extremely high barrel vaulted ceilings giving a sense of tremendous space to the traveler. However, during the early 1960's, this ceiling was lowered and covered with acoustical tile to reduce the noise element. In the four corners of the waiting area were ticket booths, newsstands and toilets. The east wing originally contained the colored waiting room which was later converted to a bar and lounge and the west wing contained the lunch room and restaurant. Two sets of double doors led from the central waiting area to the concourse and tracks beyond.
With the construction of the Jacksonville Terminal in 1919, alterations were made to the earlier building. The new building was positioned at a 90 angle with the old. This new positioning enabled passengers and baggage to move along parallel paths to the trains instead of across the tracks as had previously been the case. The portions of the 1898 station that were removed included all of the easternmost section of the building back to the point of the second tower fronting on Bay Street. The two terminals were then joined by a one-story, brick baggage facility consisting of 8,056 square feet. As it presently exists, the complex is one contiguous unit forming a large ell. The 1898 Union Station which fronts on West Bay Street tends to be obscured by the monumental Jacksonville Terminal as one approaches the complex from the east.