Great Overland Station

United States historic place


Union Pacific Railroad Passenger Depot
U.S. National Register of Historic Places


39°3′58″N 95°40′10″W / 39.06611°N 95.66944°W / 39.06611; -95.66944
Area	less than one acre
Built	1925–1927
Architect	Underwood, Gilbert Stanley
MPS	Railroad Resources of Kansas MPS
NRHP reference No.	02000492^[1]
Added to NRHP	October 1, 2002

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 1927 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]

Passenger trains

Rock Island passenger trains included the:^[4]
- Golden State
- Imperial
- Oklahoma Rocket
- Twin Star Rocket
Union Pacific trains included the:^[5]
- City of St. Louis
- Pony Express

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

^ ^a ^b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
^ ^a ^b "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Union Pacific Railroad Passenger Depot". National Park Service. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
^ Official Guide of the Railways December 1951, Index of Railroad Stations
^ Official Guide of the Railways December 1951, Rock Island Lines section
^ 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 toward Rock Island
Topeka toward Teague		Teague – Minneapolis	Herington toward Minneapolis
Terminus		North Topeka – St. Joseph	Elmont toward St. Joseph
Preceding station	Union Pacific Railroad		Following station
Menoken toward Denver		Kansas Pacific Railway	Grantville toward Kansas City