New! Events Calendar! Find out when and where town hall and committee meetings will be taking place! New! Events Calendar! Find out when and where town hall and committee meetings will be taking place!  
Denver Union Station: Environmental Impact Statement Home | Contact Us | Glossary | FAQs  
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
Project History
  Union Station History
  Project Location Map
graphic
The Master Plan
Master Developer
Public & Advisory Committees
Get More Information
Related Activities
 
DUS 1881
  1881 -photo courtesy Denver Public Library  
DUS 1895
  1895 -photo courtesy Denver Public Library  
DUS 1914
  1914 -photo courtesy Denver Public Library  
Project History
Union Station History
Legacy of a Landmark: A Brief History of Denver Union Station Sort Descending
1870 bullet The first train arrived in Denver's Central Platte Valley on June 21, 1870. At that time, only four small temporary stations were set up to serve passengers.
1881 bullet The Union Depot and Railroad Company built the city's first Union Station. It cost $525,000 and opened on June 1, 1881.
1894 bullet The original Union Station building burned on March 18, 1894, when a fire ignited the electrical system of the ladies' restroom. Damage was considerable. The building's wooden tower was destroyed. Union Station was quickly rebuilt with a much lower roofline and a stone clock tower replaced the wooden one.
1906 bullet Denver's famous Welcome or Mizpah Arch was built in front of Union Station on 17th Street between Wynkoop and Wazee streets; the arch was formally dedicated on July 4, 1906.
1914 bullet In 1914, the Denver Union Terminal Railway Company tore down the stone clock tower and replaced with the building's lower expanded center section that you see to this day. The original chandeliers were eight feet across. The original sconces on the wall were under coats of paint for decades. Only recently were they restored to their original bronze tone. The plaster arches that line the walls of the center room have 2300 carved Columbine flowers in them.
1920s/30s bullet The 1920s and 1930s were the glory days of Denver Union Station. During that time, the station operated 80 trains a day.
1931 bullet The Mizpah arch was taken down on December 7, 1931 after being deemed a traffic hazard. Presidents Eisenhower, Taft and Theodore Roosevelt are just a few of the famous people who came by train into Union Station.
1958 bullet Up until 1958, Denver Union Station had more travelers than Stapleton Airport.
Late 1980s bullet In the late 1980s, the Regional Transportation District (RTD) and the City of Denver cooperated with the Denver Union terminal Railway Corporation (DUT), the private owner of the terminal, to make improvements to the site. These improvements included upgrading rail platforms and canopies and accommodating an RTD bus lane to access Market Street Station from the I-25 bus/High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes.
1997-2000 bullet RTD, the City and the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) cooperated with the Union Station Transport Development Company (USTDC) and various private landowners and businesses to create the Central Platte Valley Light Rail Spur (C-Line), a major public transit connection to DUS.
2001 bullet In August 2001, RTD purchased the site in accordance with a jointly funded Intergovernmental Agreement between RTD, the City and County of Denver (CCD), CDOT and DRCOG.
2002 bullet In May 2002, the Denver Union Station project team was initiated by the CCD, RTD, CDOT, and DRCOG to develop a Master Plan and prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Union Station.
2006 bullet On November 15, 2006, the Union Station partnering agencies announced the selection of Continuum/East West as the Master Developer team to head the redevelopment and preservation of Denvers historic Union Station.
Source: RTD and Denver Union Terminal Supervisor