On March 18, 1894, an electrical fire destroyed the central portion of the station. In February 1880, representatives of the four lines that would use the depot signed a contract, which stated that the railroads would pay for use on a percentage basis, depending on the amount of freight and traffic each sent through the station. At the time of its completion, the structure was one of the largest depots in the American West. The wings of the building contained baggage and office facilities, and passenger services were in the central portion. A lawn fronted the building on the side facing Wynkoop Street. The completed structure measured 65 feet by 503 feet, and had a 128-foot tall tower that measured 32 feet square. The sandstone trim came from a quarry near Morrison, and the DSP&P line freighted it to Denver. The foundation and walls had stones from near Castle Rock, where the D&RG had built a line. The depot was built in an Italian Romanesque style with stone from several Colorado quarries. Construction began in 1880, and the depot opened for business in May 1881, with an official grand opening held in July. Shortly after its creation, the company purchased land at Seventeenth and Wynkoop for the facility. Cheesman, a prominent Denver figure, as the first president. Officials of the various railroads and local citizens held a meeting in November of 1879 that resulted in the formation of the Union Depot and Railroad Company (UDR). Problems had arisen in transferring freight and passengers from one line to another across the dirt paths that connected the various rail stations downtown. Jay Gould, controller of most of Colorado’s railroads at the time, suggested the formation of a commission to study the possibility of a joint terminal. Momentum gathered for a general use structure in 1879. The Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad (DSP&P) built a third station in 1874 at Sixth and Walnut Streets, and the Colorado Central built a fourth station in 1875 at Sixteenth and Delgany Streets. In 1871 William Jackson Palmer’s Denver & Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) built a second station at Nineteenth and Wynkoop Streets because it could not reach the existing depot due to right of way conflicts. Three railroads used this station: the DP, which ran north to meet the Union Pacific in Cheyenne, Wyoming the Kansas-Pacific Railroad (KP), which ran east toward Kansas, and the Colorado Central Railroad (CC), which ran west toward Golden and Central City. The Denver Pacific Railroad (DP) built the first station in 1868 at Wazee and Twenty-first Streets. DevelopmentĪlthough railroads have served Denver since 1868, no consolidated station existed for the city’s rail traffic until the completion of the Union Depot in 1881. It opened in 1881 as the city’s first consolidated railroad depot, and a renovation completed in 2014 reinvented the station as a transportation and visitor attraction. Union Station, located in Lower Downtown Denver (LoDo) on Wynkoop Street between Eighteenth and Sixteenth Streets, is downtown Denver’s main transportation center.
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