Union Station Kansas City history

In June 1933, Union Station was struck by violence, as Pretty Boy Floyd and a few of his cohorts tried unsuccessfully to free their friend Frank Nash, a federal prisoner on his way to Leavenworth Penitentiary.

Despite being opened during the heyday of rail travel the terminal's peak passenger traffic did not occur until 1945 when it witnessed nearly 680,000 travelers pass through its doors!

Sherry Lamb Schirmer and Richard D. McKinzie, At the River's Bend: An Illustrated History of Kansas City (Woodland Hills, CA: Windsor Publications, 1982), 42-43.

150-151. "He Built in the Path of Progress: Asa Beebe Cross," by George Ehrlich, in the Historic Kansas City Foundation Gazette, May-June 1983; Cross designed the Union Depot station.

Things got so bad that by 1985 Amtrak decided to move into a smaller building nearby (due largely to the building's deteriorating condition).

Since 1996 restorations have brought the grand building back to its former glory and today you cannot only still catch Amtrak trains from Union Station (the regional Missouri River Runner and long-distance Southwest Chief) but also shop, dine, and even watch movies there!

The renovation began in 1997 and was completed about two years later.

"Union Depot Lives on in Exhibit," by Matt Campbell, in The Kansas City Star, May 8, 2008; explains that 131-year-old doorway stone from the Union Depot is now on display at Union Station.

In December 2010, the KC Chamber moved its offices to historic Union Station.

March 2013, the fully renovated Regnier Extreme Screen Theatre re-opens and begins offering nature films and first-run movies for the first time.