El Paso Union Passenger Station

The El Paso Union Passenger Station, a Neo-Classical railroad station built in 1905, is an important historical landmark representing El Paso's importance as a transportation center. Built as the first union station in the United States designed expressly for the purpose of handling international traffic, the depot marks an important epoch in the history of U. S. railroads.

Due to the existence of both the Santa Fe and Chihuahua cattle trails through El Paso in the early 19th century, as well as the city's important crossroads location, El Paso developed into a great railroad center in the 1880s. The El Paso Union Passenger Depot Company was incorporated on February 7, 1903, for the purpose of planning a new facility to meet the mounting passenger train movement on a national, as well as an inter-national basis. The railroads forming the union were the Southern Pacific, Texas & Pacific, Santa Fe, and Nationale de Mexico.

The El Paso Union Passenger Depot Company chose R. O. Coltrin as the first president and J. C. Love as the first vice president of the new organization. Commissioned as architect for the proposed building was Daniel H. Burnham & Company of Chicago, one of the most influential architectural firms of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Buchanan and Powers, general contractors for the project, began construction in 1904. Located in downtown El Paso at the intersection of San Francisco Avenue and Coldwell Street, the depot was completed in November 1905 and opened for business on March 1, 1906. The first year of operation saw 22 trains per day arriving and departing from the station.

The station as it originally existed was a structure in the Neo-Classical Revival style with a tower and steeple. This tower was reportedly used during Mexican Revolutionary times as a lookout. An exterior remodeling project in 1941 added various Spanish Colonial Revival motifs, a not-too-uncommon practice for the time. Other minor alterations were made in 1969 to accommodate the GGreyhound Bus Lines while a new terminal was being built.

The depot saw more traffic during Work War II than at any other time, as did most railroad passenger stations in the U. S. However, passenger traffic declined steadily after the War as the traveling public moved to the highways and airlines. Not many years passed before such immortals of the "High Iron" as the Texas & Pacific's "Sunshine Special" and "Texas Eagle," and the Southern Pacific's "Sunset Limited" and "Golden State Limited" rolled out of the station forever.

With the advent of Amtrak's assuming operation of the one daily passenger train in May 1971, the building was still maintained by the Depot Company. Today, high maintenance costs, falling plaster, and major plumbing leaks threaten the future existence of the building. The El Paso Union Passenger Depot Company ceased its operations in the building on February 28, 1974, and filed for abandonment of the facility with the Interstate Commerce Commission on May 28, 1974. Amtrak has assumed full operation of the facilities since that time but is presently conferring with the Southern Pacific Railroad officials to sell the property to an interested buyer. Amtrak also hopes to build a new smaller station in the general vicinity to accommodate the meager passenger traffic. A great deal of publicity has been presented in the local news media during the past year concerning the demise of the old landmark. A historical landmark commission has recently been appointed under the mayor's Steering Committee for Citizen Participation in the Community Development Act. Tentative plans for adaptive reuse are pending.