Lost Jacksonville: Union Terminal

[finehoe]

"New York architect Kenneth M. Murchison won the competition for designing the terminal by borrowing freely from the design of New York's Pennsylvania Station"

Take a look:  http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16934

[Ocklawaha]

The black waiting room in 1921.
The black waiting room always had a more detailed ceiling, similar to the Texas Pacific Station (still in use) in Fort Worth. If more was ever done on the great arched ceiling in the main waiting room, it was before 1950 and by this time was history.

Bay Street in 1921.  The streetcar connected the terminal with the rest of the city.
This scene is historically significant for several reasons, the infamous Jacksonville Big Cat Story took place here, also 2 different models of streetcars are visible in one photo. The foreground contains a "Birney Safety Car - 8 wheel version," and the background contains what appears "to be Brill Semi-Convertible Car" (IE: The front windows were removable for summer and fair weather).

The terminal's yard in the 1920s.
Somebody's bound to be wondering about that road that crossed all those tracks... Relax folks, it was for Terminal baggage trains and not public use, it was way out near Myrtle Avenue because many of the trains handled in Jacksonville were 18-22 cars long!

A scene from 1926.  Bay Street in 1921.  The streetcar connected the terminal with the rest of the city.
Scene of the Big Cat, right across the street through the 1980's were some of the coolest pawn shops in town. About 6 years after the Terminal Closed a rail nut friend strolled across to take photos, and sitting in the window was a locomotive. Not just any locomotive but a large scale, RIDE in type, he bought it for $100.00!

A scene from 1926.
Even at this early date, parking was a major problem, one that the Terminal never was able to solve. Note that in this photo is one of Jacksonville's other unique streetcars, completely different then the other two in the first photos. This is a Stone and Webster Turtleback Car, bigger then any JTA bus and very comfortable. Large rail cars tend to "float" over the track, and a ride on the Turtleback is no different. There may be surviving cars scattered around the city, as they were stripped of their wheels and sold for sheds, chicken coops and "Florida Rooms."

A scene from 1939. (Feb 2, 1939) top/ FEC Flagler bottom.
Not just 1939 but Feb 2, 1939 and the Jacksonville public is getting their first look at a new technology, the Diesel Streamliner. In this scene the Seaboard Air Line debuts the Silver Meteor with lightweight stainless steel cars. This train replaced the old Pullman green "Orange Blossom Special."  The Meteor is one of just 2 surviving trains to Florida under Amtrak. Oh and speaking of Amtrak, the old station handled more passengers in 3 days then Amtrak does in a year.

Just below the Meteor photo is a picture of the Florida East Coast's "pocket streamliner," The Henry M. Flagler. This train is also showing off to the public as there is NO WAY the FEC trains would ever have been hosted here on track 2-4 unless they backed all the way to Miami. The Flagler was FEC'S contribution to a family of new trains, The South Wind, The City of Miami, Dixie Flagler, each with a unique route to Chicago. The first run was December 19, 1940.

The front of the terminal and the Park Street Viaduct in 1946.
Note how the original "LEE STREET viaduct" got up and over the tracks reaching the critical elevation at a point equal to the south wall of the station. The COJ'S great idea for a new misnamed viaduct, for the visual effect of a view down water street, has now become a critical road block to reopening the old station. Note also parking was still a problem in 1946. A sharp eye will detect the row of taxi's parked in front of the columns, and the semi truck delivering another load of goodies to one of the best restaurants in the city.

New York architect Kenneth M. Murchison won the competition...
Again note the parking and the taxi's. The other plan was drawn by klutho and involved a station over the tracks, it featured through tracks, and a location closer to the Riverside Viaduct. It's downfall IMO was too few tracks, and the under the station concourses would have been filthy and choked with smoke, no amount of venting is going to kill the fly ash from those steam locomotives, or the foul smell of oil burners, or toxic gas of diesels.

The Park Street Viaduct in 1947.
Correction: THE LEE STREET VIADUCT (So said the plaque for 60+ years) "Built so that the people of Jacksonville may pass..."  The christening of the brand new Diesels, note the bottle in her hand and the executives that dutifully stayed out of the photo! To the far right one can see the platforms of two railroad private cars, on the private car tracks next to the building. To the far left, barely visible, is a baggage car off of the FEC trains.

A scene from 1948.
The crew is probably at lunch, the lack of shadows puts this as a midday scene. Midday was always the calm before the storm, the storms coming at morning and evening. The engine is positioned to handle the next train sections from south Florida to be joined into one train. To the far left some baggage cars on the express tracks, and the far right more baggage cars ready to leave. A photo testament of Jacksonville's position as the worlds largest railroad express station.

A scene from 1960.
To the far left the "white" (actually a mist green) face of a Seaboard engine with what is probably the Gulf Wind being readied for evening departure for New Orleans. On the far right two sections of a train being combined, based on where they sit, one is off of the Florida East Coast, from Miami, and the other off of the Atlantic Coast Line, from Tampa.

One of the last passenger trains to run on the FEC in 1968.
Correction, this is the LAST RUN of a regular scheduled passenger train on the Florida East Coast, even to that last day the little train sported a First Class, Tavern lounge Observation car... "The St. Lucie Sound," today the car survives in a museum and so does it's last passenger, who BTW took that photo.

Restoration was begun in 1985 to convert...
Looking down track 15-16 M/L, which end at the terminal, more exactly they end at the Terminal Restaurant, which if you could have walked straight down these sight line, you would have found yourself. No joke, the place was packed with Jacksonville business men up until the day it closed, and Denny's thinks THEY know how to make a grand slam... Denny's meet god!

The tomb of the last remaining passenger rail car on site.
This scene is double sad to a railroad historian, Seaboard Coast Line never operated the "Orange Blossom Special" passenger train, and where they have a train name painted, would have been the name of the car. In this case a First Class Sleeper Lounge

The Prime Osborn's exhibition hall has replaced the old terminal's platforms.
This "concourse" and perhaps 100' worth of the adjacent exhibit building is all of the Prime that is worth saving in the Metro-Jacksonville Transportation Center redesign.

The photo just above the concourse shot is that infamous corner again, those that have not heard the Big Jax Cat story, hang on to your seats.

This part of the terminal was open to the street, it also was in the part of the concourse (North end) near track 1-5 where all of the express and baggage was sorted. Bags often were stacked inside this area as it afforded a large open space. Theft became chronic, and finally so regular that the "baggage-smashers" could almost predict their arrival. A carload of thugs would screech to a stop, and a couple would toss 3 or 4 big bags in their 1950's auto. They were just irregular enough that the police had no luck in catching them in the several stakeouts. Finally an old train Conductor who lived in Hilliard or Callahan came in beaming one day with a big deluxe suitcase. He told the boys he used a live trap and caught that damn bobcat that had been raiding his chickens. "THE CAT WAS IN THE BAG!" Literally! The story goes that almost as soon as the boys sat it near the sidewalk, they came around the corner speeding to a stop. The bag was snatched and the car took off. They got down to about Cleveland Street when the car suddenly lurched into a telephone pole... To hear the railroaders tell it those boys are still running! The thefts stopped.

OCKLAWAHA

[CS Foltz]

finehoe............much thanks for the link! I can see the similarities  in the architecture and it is grand! Union Station is not near as big and it has been converted to a half butted Convention Center! Not really that and would take work to get back to Train Station status but would make sense! Build a new Convention Center with all of the amenities and get Union Station back to a train station..............heck even local LR could be run from there with some imagination and some funding!

[heights unknown]

The black waiting room?  The main waiting room?  I think they or whoever put the captions under each picture mean "the white waiting room" cause that's what it was.  If it was the main waiting room then blacks would have been allowed there and there wouldn't have been a black waiting room.

Yeah, hats were in for years and years from the turn of the century on up through the 1960's.  My Grandfather wore a hat when I was a boy and the black women still wear hats to Church (the older black women).

They need to make it (Union Terminal) a part of the new transportation center once again receiving trains in to Jax.

"HU"

[thelakelander]

I put the captions in.  Since I wasn't around back when it was a train station, I listed them as they were classified in the state archives.

[Ocklawaha]

Klutho strongly disliked the way the terminal was designed.  He had proposed an alternate setup whereby the terminal would be elevated above street level and the tracks, to separate foot traffic from road traffic.  The elevated setup also would have allowed passengers to exit the terminal with a direct view of downtown Jacksonville rather than walking directly into a less attractive vista of warehouses.

CONSIDER OUR AMSHACK, the old terminal handled as many people in 3 days as Amtrak handles in a YEAR. Location, Location, Location... and the mistake was repeated in spots all across the country. Here are a few of the Amshack details - all more or less twins of Jax:

Norfolk: Abandoned
Cincinnati: Abandoned
Poinciana: Abandoned razed
Albuquerque: Abandoned
St. Louis: Abandoned
JACKSONVILLE: Expanded 3x



From the Railroad Point of View...

Klutho's plan as I recall had 10 tracks M/L. This would have been a disaster with the onslaught of The Great Florida Boom. To give you an idea, for a time our 1919 station was the busiest railroad station in the entire world. It had 29 service tracks and 32+ Terminal tracks total. There wasn't enough concrete in Florida to have built that station over the sorely needed tracks. The situation got so bad, the FEC-ACL Havana Special was running in 23 sections! That is 23 trains to cover ONE schedule, so when it came in it was Advance Havana Special, 2Nd Havana Special, 3Rd... etc. That was just one of over 140 scheduled trains daily. Considering the state had to EMBARGO freight trains into Florida during that time, we were crushed with 29 tracks, imagine 10?

The though track design of Klutho would have been easier to work as a switcher could grab a cut of cars from either end. There just wouldn't have been enough tracks and the close in location would have prohibited expansion. As it is we ended up with about 15 stub tracks and 14 through tracks... The only sad explanation for
that many stub tracks is our mail and express, and the FACT that everyone in Florida expected Jacksonville to become the greatest metropolis in the South. Those tracks were built to originate and terminate trains, not to work through trains to Miami or Tampa.

The Klutho design would have been great for Newark, Hartford, or even Butte, where the trains were ELECTRIC. To have sent our steam trains and diesels through there would have been like boarding a train in a coal mine. The ENTIRE population of Jacksonville would have been "black!" no, not racial, I'm talking REALLY black!

The forest of pillars would have made for "night switching" at 12 noon, this was no doubt a concern of the railroad companies. Though the Klutho station track plan was superior in design, the yard was far too small even for the break-up and make-up duties of the station in the late 50's and early 60's, when we STILL scheduled 56 trains a day!

The 1919 Station is where it is today because the CITY forced the issue on the railroads, who would have had it closer in, and the City wanted it beyond Myrtle, in the Beaver Street Junctions. We probably couldn't have come up with a better spot unless one considers the alternative station location that was where the Maxwell house plant sits today. Perhaps a drawbridge at that location would have worked... We'll never know.

OCKLAWAHA

[Ocklawaha]

Actually HU, the term used in the station was "Colored Waiting Room" and "White Waiting Room" this is what the old signs read, and yes a white kid could get in trouble in the colored waiting room! I was in there once when I was quite young, (I had railroad After School care, LOL) but thinking about it, I don't even think it was in general use anymore. I was talking to some of the Terminal guys and some big shot came in and told me, "Your not supposed to be in here, this is the COLORED waiting room!" I was completely naive and retorted (see I was already a smart ass) "Hey I'm COLORED --- I'm WHITE!"  Which the guys thought was the funniest thing ever said, and NO WAY would they ever let me live it down.

Actually the railroad's in the State of Florida were way ahead of their time and sued, and won the right to integrate trains and facilities, this was prior to WWII, long before the civil rights battles. No doubt it was an economy measure, done to wipe out the need for two train cars, or special "Jim Crow" cars on the trains, where ever they could be replaced with a single car.  I don't know the details of the deal, but is was done, perhaps in phases, perhaps some counties held their stations out but here in Jax it was different. All over the station we had signs that read "Anyone regardless of color can use this _____"  fountains, restrooms, restaurant etc...

OCKLAWAHA

[Wacca Pilatka]

Ock, thanks as always for the always fascinating information.  Incidentally, Newport News' Amshack is still in operation, though not exactly healthy.  I assume because NN is so oddly shaped that there isn't necessarily a better spot for a station.

HU, my late grandmother and great-aunts, all of whom lived into the 2000s, all wore hats to church their entire lives.  Hat-wearing definitely is still around.

[tufsu1]

if you all want to see an Am-shack, do a Google search for the Birmingham, AL station....and I think its in the same area where the original station was!

[thelakelander]

Birmingham's Amshack

[tufsu1]

Lake...this is a "nice" pic...I was there yesterday and took another shot...one that includes oil tank trucks in the dilapidated parking lot!

[stjr]

Wonderful article.  We have lots of family movies of trips in and out of this station.  As a child, I loved going to see family and visitors off, running down the slopes of the tunnel ramps, the smell of the trains, and the power of the engines pulling them out.  In those days, visitors were even allowed to board the trains right up until they started to move out.  Porters and luggage carts everywhere.  A day when regular travelers knew the porters and people respected each other and gave personal service and attention.  A bygone era.

The link to Penn Station in NY is fascinating as is the resemblance to our Union Station.  How NY allowed its destruction is truly amazing.  While our RR station survives, we have allowed way too many other great local buildings to disappear creating our own travesty of destruction.

Looking at the aerial photo below and the street cars in other photos, our city planners of yore were far more superior and imaginative in effective land use and connectivity.  I bet none of them had college master degrees and maybe not even bachelors.  But, they seem to have had lots of common sense and took time to think out solutions that worked and were livable.  They are geniuses compared to today's planners who look like idiots by comparison with wasteful land use, cold designs, impersonal functionality, etc.  Union Station is a real intermodal transportation center and we would do good just to rebuild it as close to its original design as possible.

Most professions have advanced their trade over the decades but planning seems to have gone very far backwards.  The profession should really be embarrassed when they view pictures of pre-WW II cities compared to today's disjointed and dysfunctional land and city planning.  And, suburbia is nothing short of a crime against humanity and mother earth. Can we sue for professional negligence?  
 

[mtraininjax]

Nice article on the Union Station, now if only the old Post office or Courthouse could/would be as deserving of attention.

[gogators07]

The Terminal is also mentioned as waystation for Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night."

In the film, both stars arrive by train in Jacksonville and leave north via bus.

http://www.filmsite.org/itha.html

[Jaxson]

It is admirable that Jacksonville did not raze the Union Terminal.  New York is still living down their colossal mistake of demolishing Pennsylvania Station. 
I still hope that we will return passenger rail to where it belongs.  As it is now, however, nobody seems to care.  It feels like each time I post about this topic, it's just spitting into the wind.  We seem to be a city that is content with mediocrity.  It is even more galling for me to write our city's leaders and get nothing in way of a response - with the exception of one city councilman.