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Before automobiles and air travel were easily accessible by the average American, railroads were the vital routes through which people moved across the country. After the east and west coasts were connected by rail, Kansas City became a hub for both passenger and freight service. Union Station was constructed as an aspirational monument to represent Kansas City to these travelers, and no portion of the building bore more witness to the rise and fall of its fortunes than the Grand Plaza.At the height of rail travel in the United States, Union Station handled 72,000 trains annually with a high-water mark of x in 19xx. During this time, Union Station’s Grand Plaza was as busy as any of our modern airports with a dozen different rail lines delivering people to points all across the country. Soldiers going to two world wars traveled from Union Station to be deployed overseas.  After World War II, productive war-time manufacturing provided innovation in automobiles and air travel, including massive efforts to develop the interstate system. These factors contributed to the decline of rail travel and eventually led to the last passenger train leaving Union Station in 1985 before its current, renovated incarnation. Still, standing in the majesty of the Grand Hall is a humbling experience that makes imagining a different time quite easy.

Rainwater From a Leaky Ceiling Fills the Abandoned Plaza

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Saturday Evening Post - The Golden Age of Rail Travel

A Brief History of Railroads in Kansas City

For decades, Union Station’s Grand Plaza was the first and last glimpse of Kansas City travelers saw as they arrived and departed by train. This earned the sprawling room, and the station as a whole, the title of “Kansas City’s Front Porch.” Following the restoration of Union Station, the Grand Plaza has become one of the most sought-after event spaces in town.

Grand Plaza, Union Station

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The expansion of railroads after the Civil War spurred significant economic development in Kansas City. It grew into a booming transportation hub, with numerous railroads crossing through the city to ship cattle and other agricultural products. In 1878, a group of businessmen pooled their resources and constructed a large, single train station to accommodate the increase in traffic. Union Depot, as it was known, was located in the West Bottoms neighborhood for close proximity to the stockyards. Built at a cost of $410,000, the building incorporated aspects of Victorian and Gothic architecture, with extensive ornamentation and a 125-foot clock tower. Critics nicknamed it “Kansas City’s Insane Asylum” for the extravagant design. The continued growth of the railroad industry quickly rendered the depot inadequate for the city’s needs. Additionally, passengers transiting through the depot complained about the nearby stockyards as well as surrounding gambling halls, saloons, and brothels. Damages caused to the depot in a 1903 flood provided an impetus for leaders to seek a new location.In 1914, the Kansas City Terminal Railway, a partnership between a dozen area railroads, constructed a massive new Union Station along Main Street. Its creation was part of the “City Beautiful Movement” in Kansas City during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The urban planning campaign sought to improve and beautify the community through the construction of lavish public buildings, parks, and other facilities and amenities. Chicago architect and City Beautiful supporter Jarvis Hunt designed the station in the Beaux-Arts style. The six-story, 850,000 square-foot, T-shaped building was made with limestone and polished granite at a cost of $5.7 million, over twice the original budget. Notable features include a 95-foot-high ceiling, a six-foot-wide clock, and several 3,500-pound chandeliers. At the time of its opening, it was the third largest train station in the United States.Union Station contained railroad offices, lobbies, restaurants, a barbershop, post office, drug store, jail, hospital, and power plant. Until 1938, it also served as the headquarters for the Fred Harvey Company, which operated a chain of restaurants and hotels along major railroads. For many years, it was a bustling center of activity in Kansas City. Thousands of soldiers traveled through here during both world wars; during World War I, over 200 trains a day passed through the station. A young Walt Disney took a one-way train from the station to Los Angeles in July 1923 with all his possessions in a single suitcase.The eastern entrance to the building was the site of the Union Station Massacre (also known as the Kansas City Massacre), which left five people dead. On June 17, 1933, several law enforcement officers, including some FBI agents, were escorting convicted mobster and escaped prisoner Frank Nash to the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. As they were placing Nash into a vehicle in front of Union Station, three of his associates armed with machine guns opened fire on the group in a rescue attempt. Four officers were killed in the shootout, as well as Nash himself. Seeing that their effort had failed, the shooters fled the scene. The incident prompted a federal investigation and reforms to the FBI, including permission for agents to carry firearms.Union Station entered a precipitous decline in the 1950s that coincided with the nationwide decline in passenger rail traffic. By 1973, only six trains a day were running through the station. When Amtrak left in 1985—ending all passenger train service in the station—the building was left mostly vacant and deteriorating. Grassroots efforts began in the 1990s to save and revitalize the station. In 1994, the nonprofit Union Station Assistance Corporation was established and assumed control over the property. Two years later, voters in four counties in Missouri and Kansas approved a special tax to raise money for a science museum inside the station. This, coupled with private donations and federal funding, led to a $250 million renovation project. The work included restoring the station to its original appearance as much as possible while leaving space open for new amenities.Union Station reopened to the public in 1999 with the introduction of Science City, an interactive science museum housed in the former train sheds. Over the following years the station added historical exhibits, restaurants, offices, retail space, event spaces, galleries, theaters, and a planetarium. The commercial ventures help to keep the station financially sustainable. Passenger train service was restored to the station in 2002 when Amtrak resumed operations in the facility.

The third-largest railroad station in the country when it was completed in 1914, Kansas City's Union Station has been restored to its former grandeur and offers a variety of educational and cultural attractions, including Science City, theaters, restaurants, retail shops, office space, and museum exhibits. The Beaux-Arts style building, noted for its colossal size and fine ornamentation, was part of the "City Beautiful Movement" to develop more green spaces and aesthetically pleasing public facilities in Kansas City. The station served as the heart of city's booming transportation industry in the early twentieth century, when the Kansas City was at the intersection of multiple railroads. During its peak, over 200 trains passed through the Union Station daily. The facility experienced a period of decline and deterioration from the 1950s to the 1980s as passenger rail traffic collapsed. Community efforts starting in the 1990s led to a $250 million project to restore the station and revitalize it as a major commercial and educational center. It serves as a model for the potential of adaptive reuse in historical structures. Union Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

<h3>The Kansas City Massacre</h3>The foundation of the Kansas City Massacre involved an attempt by Floyd, Miller, and Richetti to free the federal prisoner Frank Nash from the hands of the FBI. Nash’s previous convictions included a life sentence for murder in 1913 (pardoned), a 25-year sentence for burglary with explosives in 1920 (pardoned), and a 25-year sentence for assaulting a mail custodian in 1924 (escaped with seven other prisoners in 1931). On June 16th, 1933, and based on information from two captured bank robbers who were associates with Nash, two FBI agents and an Oklahoma Police Chief captured Frank Nash in Hot Springs, Arkansas. At 8:30pm on June 16th, the officers and Nash boarded a train to Kansas City, which would arrive at 7:15 a.m. Before leaving, the three officers arranged for the agent in charge of the FBI’s Kansas City office to meet them at the Union Railway Station. News of Nash’s capture spread through the underworld quickly, and so did the time of the FBI’s arrival in Kansas City. Four men organized a conspiracy to free Nash, and they gave Vernon Miller the task. Pretty Boy Floyd and Adam Richietti agreed to aid the mission. On the morning of June 17th, the three gunmen took positions outside the Union Railway Station and awaited the FBI’s arrival. A total of seven officers were leaving the Union Railway Station with Frank Nash. Two of them had shotguns, while the other officers carried pistols. Walking outside the station, the officers didn’t find anything suspicious, and moved Nash to the transport car (a Chevrolet). Some officers were inside the car with Nash, with others outside, when two of the armed gunmen ran up to the car. One FBI officer noted that at least one of them had a machine gun. At first, a gunman told the officers to put their hands up, but a few seconds later, a command came forth saying, “Let ‘em have it!”While the two gunmen approached the Chevrolet, the third snuck up behind the radiator of another car and opened fire with a machine gun. Two officers immediately fell to the ground, another FBI officer (the agent in charge of the FBI’s Kansas City Office) fell with a fatal wound in the head, and both Nash and the Oklahoma Police Chief were killed from inside the car. The three gunmen escaped, and in total, the assault lasted about 30 seconds. On November 33rd, 1933, Vernon Miller’s mutilated corpse was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Detroit. Floyd and Richetti went on the run together for over a year, and Richetti was captured near Wellsville, Ohio, on October 20th in 1934. A gunfight ensued in this capture, and Pretty Boy Floyd escaped, possibly wounded. Two days later, officers found Floyd outside Clarkson, Ohio, and another gunfight ensued. Floyd was hit twice, captured, and taken to a hospital. He died 15 minutes after being shot. The four other men who had engineered the conspiracy to free Floyd were indicted by a Grand Jury in Kansas City two days after Floyd was killed. A year later, all four men were found guilty.<h3>Union Station's Lamp Post Clock</h3>Just south of the marker and bullet holes, one can find an outdoor clock that predates Union Station and even its predecessor, Union Depot, which served the city from 1878 to 1914 and was located in the city's West Bottoms. The clock dates back to the 1880s and was located at the corner of 10th and Main. The clock was refurbished and restored in the late 1990s thanks to the Helzberg family. The clock was damaged in a 2015 storm but was restored thanks to the Rainen family, and it was dedicated to this location in 2016.

In the 1920s and early 1930s, before the devastating effects of the Great Depression really took the country by storm, the United States was going through a “golden period.” Alcohol may have been prohibited, but the national fervor was widely apparent. Along with Prohibition, however, organized crime in New York and Chicago put millions of dollars in the hands of criminals and murderers, and well into the 1930s, organized crime often resulted in several grueling, bloody events. On the morning of June 17th, 1933, infamous gangster Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd and two other constituents, Vernon Miller and Adam Richetti, murdered four police officers and a prisoner in front of the Union Railway Station in Kansas City. This mass murder shocked the nation and drew significant exposure to the nature of organized crime, and this act thereafter changed many of the standard procedures of the FBI. Just south of the marker honoring the officers who perished in the Kansas City Massacre is a stately outdoor clock that was located at 10th and Main in the 1880s.

Officer's Memorial, Kansas City Massacre (1933) and Union Station's Lamp Post Clock

Union Station’s Grand Hall is a resplendent, majestic setting which simultaneously makes someone in the space feel incredibly small and regal at the same time. The hall is over 200 feet long and 96 tall. The walls are a mustard-colored Kasota limestone and the geometric patterns in the marble floor mirror those of the plasterwork soaring overhead. The steel foundations and framing structures were built with hot iron rivets, and a four-story “falsework” was assembled inside the hall to aid in the construction of the roofing and ceiling plasterworks. Each of these tasks involved many workers. Wet plaster was applied by one man and then formed with a mold by another before it cold dry. Following behind that was the meticulous detail work and painting. Similarly it took workers over an hour to raise and place the huge chunks of Bedford limestone, the favored material for official government structures like the capitol. Author Jeffery Spivak describes the scene in his book, “Union Station Kansas City:” “Travelers and curiosity seekers seeing the station for the first time would pass - starting on the west side of the Grand Hall and proceeding clockwise - the baggage-check area near the west door, a parcel checkroom, the men’s smoking room with benches and white marble wainscotting, then a barber shop with 12 chairs and a fruit and candy store. Heading farther east, the visitor reached a coffered arch in the middle of the room - the middle of three arches on the north wall aligned with the arch windows in the South wall. Attached to that wall was a semicircular ticket office with bronze grill work. Hanging from the top of the arched entrance to the waiting room was a 6-foot-wide clock. The waiting room beyond was more than 300 feet long and its own, smaller arched windows admitting rays of sunlight on pewlike mahogany benches aligned in parallel rows. Farther eastward in the Grand Hall, the visitor passed the women's waiting room - guarded by a matron - a drugstore and, finally, through bronze doors into the east wing, the Fred Harvey restaurant. It featured a long, U-shaped lunch counter in one room and an elegant dining room next door.”Now, in the center of the Grand Hall, the U-shaped Fred Harvey restaurant sits where once the ticketing booths were. Originally, the restaurant was on the east side of the hall where Pierpont’s is now. Fred Harvey opened his first rail station restaurant in 1876 in Topeka, Kansas with the help of the Santa Fe railroad line. Harvey lamented the state of train dining and saw a lucrative opportunity to fill the void. At the time of his death in 1901, the Fred Harvey Company operated 47 restaurants. At the peak, the number of Harvey House restaurants numbered in the eighties. The enterprise continued into the 1960s, with Harvey's son, and later, his grandson, at the helm. By the time Union Station opened, the restaurant empire was controlled by his son, Ford Harvey, who had an office above present-day Pierpont’s. This office contained the station’s only working fireplace. Legend has it that Fred Harvey was disappointed by his male waitstaff and sought out “young women, 18 to 30 years of age, of good character, attractive and intelligent.” The mythic qualities of purity and service deployed by the “Harvey Girls” led to the 1946 film by the same name staring Judy Garland. The girls were asked to stay on for at least six months due to the number that were courted by cowboys and railroad travelers. More speculation has it that over 20,000 Harvey Girls ended up marrying people they met on the job and over 4,000 babies from those unions were reportedly named “Fred” or “Harvey.”The original Harvey’s lunch counter sign can still be seen in the Amtrak waiting room.

Visitors to Kansas City following its opening in 1914 considered Union Station's Grand Hall to be the city's front porch. For nearly anyone in that era, Union Station was the first impression and final memory for those traveling to or from the city. Following a $250 million restoration funded by a sales tax levy and private investment, the station reopened in 1999 with a variety of restaurants and attractions. The central feature of Grand Hall is Harvery's Restaurant, a nod to the influence of Kansas City-area railroad restaurant innovator Fred Harvey.

Grand Hall and Harvey's Restaurant

<h3>Jarvis Hunt Room</h3>Jarvis Hunt may have been a product of wealth and societal connections, but the Chicago-born architect created his most famous work through shrewd decisions and the powerful force of his will. Hunt was accepted for the position of designing and building the new Kansas City Union Station almost without competition by the twelve organized rail lines that were working on the project. This happened through a chain of associations that traced back to the Chicago Golf Club.Hunt's uncle, Richard Morris Hunt, was a popular and successful architect of his own, known for designing and building mansions and estates in Newport, Rhode Island and New York City. It was through these connections that Jarvis Hunt was selected to build the Chicago Golf Club's club house. From there, he was hired to build houses for a number of members along the course. Hunt competed in the 1904 World Olympics on the United States Gold Team.Among the most beneficial of the Chicago tycoons, Jarvis Hunt became friends with the president of the Alton line, Samule Felton. Felton hired Hunt to build the new train station in Mexico, MO. This work and success was fresh on Felton's mind as he and the rest of the railroad presidents looked for someone to lead the project in Kansas City. To Felton, Hunt was the obvious choice. Edward Harriman, president of Union and Southern Pacific Railroads as well as the chair of the Terminal Railroad planning committee listened to Felton, so Hunt was his choice as well.After being selected, it is rumored that Harriman gave hunt a single imperative to work with in his designs: "Make a monument."<h3>Railroads and the Postal Service</h3>With the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln solidified the growing relationship between mail services and the railroads. It stated that it was “An Act To aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes.”Rail Post Offices (RPOs) were formed soon after to take advantage of the expediency of the railroads. RPOs provided remarkable economic convenience for smaller towns along the train line by delivering the mail as they passed even when the train was not scheduled to stop. Instead of waiting for mail to be delivered to a depot at a determined stop and brought back to the town by wagon, residents received their mail much more quickly.This service, however, slowed down the entire Railway Mail Service, and with-it passenger service, because trains were forced to slow down at every town in order for a clerk to exchange outgoing mail and incoming mail by passing it hand to hand. Faster exchanges sometimes ended up in disastrous "snowstorms" where mail bags were caught in the train wheels and erupted in a rain of letters.By 1869, less than eight years after RPOs began operating, the RMS had devised a faster, and much more dramatic method to transfer mail "on-the-fly." This was the Mail Crane. A durable steel hook and crane standing ten-feet tall, the Mail Crane held a"Catcher Pouch" that was swept into the RPO car by an onboard "Catcher Arm" operated by an RPO clerk at just the right moment. A common sight along railways for the next sixty years, an RPO clerk would simultaneously push mail destined for a town out of the train while swinging the Catcher Arm outward to bring in the outgoing mail via the Catcher Pouch.The beauty of such a smooth transfer of mail at full speed also brought with it significant risks for RPO clerks. A Catcher Arm released at the wrong time might miss the mail completely and instead hit switch targets, telegraph and telephone poles, or semaphores. A missed catch resulted in five demerits against the offending clerk, which wounded their pride, but could also cause significant physical harm. Dangerous conditions came with the job on the RPO. In addition to injuries caused by the Mail Crane, clerks also encountered trains jumping the rails, excessive heat and cold, and fires, especially on the earlier wooden RPO cars.The inherent risks associated with these working conditions led a contingent of Kansas City RPO clerks to form their own hospitalization group in 1939. This burgeoning service grew into one of the largest health associations for federal workers and is still in existence today. It is now known as the Government Employees Health Association, or GEHA.

Named in honor of Jarvis Hunt, the Chicago-based architect who designed Union Station, this space at the northwest corner of Grand Hall was home to a men's smoking lounge. The space is now utilized for banquets and meetings. The room features some of Union's Station's historic chandeliers and marble floors. Jarvis Hunt designed numerous structures throughout the nation, including some of Kansas City's current landmarks like the Kansas City Star Building and the Commerce Trust Building. Just south of the Jarvis Hunt Room is an exhibit highlighting the connection between Union Station and the postal service. The utilization of railroads to move mail, especially after the completion of transcontinental routes, changed the way in which the people of the eastern and western United States communicated. After the completion of Union Station, most of the mail crossing the country passed through Kansas City. This exhibit highlights the advances that were made to both increase the efficiency of the process and to protect the health of Rail Post Office (RPO) workers. Established by the Government Employees Heath Association (GEHA) in collaboration with Union Station, the exhibit was dedicated on November 19, 2020.

Jarvis Hunt Room and Postal Service Exhibit

Created and maintained entirely by volunteers, this extensive model train exhibit features eight different scales or sizes that run simultaneously in a variety of exhibits, including some that feature recreations of some of Kansas City's most iconic buildings. The trains can be viewed for a suggested donation within an eight thousand square foot exhibit space that includes around five or six dozen trains running at the same time. Volunteers expand the display each holiday season as part of Union Station's annual celebration.The full-time, volunteer-staff works constantly to maintain the mechanical and electronic elements of the display. Servicing the collection of model trains, some of which outdate the station itself, requires specific knowledge and technical creativity. Many of the older pieces of the exhibit were built by companies which have been out of business for half a century, requiring custom fixes and improvised solutions to issues with parts, electronics, and lubrications. Volunteers work daily in an onsite workshop to provide upkeep. Near the Model Train Exhibit is access to the Havery Freight House Bridge, named after Michael Haverty - the fourth-generation railroader from Atchinson Kansas who started as a switchman/brakeman with Missouri Pacific Railroad and retired in 2015 as President and CEO of Kansas City Southern. Haverty served as Chairman of the Union Station Kansas City Board from 2005 – 2012. Walking the bridge provides views of Amtrak and freight trains as they arrive and depart the yard.

Originally a holiday display in the Grand Hall, Union Station's Model Train Exhibit outgrew its space and moved to a dedicated, year-round location at the north end of the Grand Plaza. Run entirely by volunteers, the model rails fill all available room as the trains wind through representations of many iconic locations in Kansas City. Nearby, visitors can access the Haverty Freight House Bridge, which spans the historic Union Station railyards and provides a walkway to the Crossroads District.

Model Train Exhibit & Haverty Freight House Bridge

Fred Harvey's SignThe sign from Fred Harvey’s original Union Station location hangs inside the Amtrak waiting room just off the Grand Hall. Harvey, a forefather of the chain restaurant, had one of his first location inside Union Station where Pierpont’s currently operates. Richard Nixon signed the Rail Passenger Service Act creating the National Railroad Passenger Corporation which would eventually become Amtrak. This originally incorporated eight private railroads under federal administration, but that number would grow to 20. When established, Amtrak operated six daily trains through Union Station. This number shows the scale of the decline of rail travel in the United States from the 200 daily trains through the station at its peak. In 1983 everything in Union Station Closed except Amtrak and The Lobster Pot restaurant. Amtrak continues business within an inflatable structure implemented to maintain climate control and avoid water from the leaking ceiling. Finally, in 1985, Amtrak left as well. After the renovation in 2002, passenger rail travel finally returned to Union Station with two Amtrak lines.Haverty Railroad GalleryThe Haverty Railroad Gallery, located between the Amtrak waiting room and Pierpont’s, displays work by the artist Richard Allison of the twelve rail companies that joined together to form the Kansas City Terminal Railroad. The KCTR would fund the design and construction of Union Station by the architect Jarvis Hunt.  It was this union of twelve railroads that led to the name Union Station, just as the coming together of six railroads led to Union Station's predecessor, Union Depot in the West Bottoms. The gallery is named in honor of Michael R. and Marlys Haverty, prominent supporters of Union Station.Railroad China CollectionThe Railroad China Collection, on display outside of Pierpont’s is mesmerizing. Looking at these pieces draws the viewer back into a time when there was an elegance in traveling. It is hard to imagine the level of detail and service that were provided to travelers riding these specific lines, but the craftwork, precision, and though put into the ceramics shown here is a great start.

Union Station continues to serve rail passengers via Amtrak, which returned to Union Station after departing in 1985. Next to the Amtrak waiting room is a historic sign for Fred Harvey's restaurant chain which once operated throughout the region. Perhaps the first true chain restaurant in American history, Fred Harvey's railroad depots thrived because they met a need in an era when travelers had few dining options. Fred Harvey pioneered a model that served travelers quickly and efficiently, and his methods were soon repeated at depots along the Atchison, Topeka, &amp; Santa Fe Railroad. Nearbye are a display of custom flatware from the individual likes and the Haverty Railroad Gallery, both displaying images and items from a moment in American History when rail travel was an elegant, sophisticated, and elevated means of transportation.

Fred Harvey's Sign, Haverty Railroad Gallery, and Railroad China Collection

Starting with a history of the exhibit in the first floor Southwest Elevator chamber, Union Station Stories guides you up three stories through the history of the station and its evolution into its current form. Filled with images and ephemera from its colorful past, the exhibit visits many of the important dates and figures that helped shape the station. In addition to displays of tools and uniforms and removed detritus, walking Union Station Stories will give some amazing vantage points to view both the Grand Hall and the Grand Plaza. The views from these places are often mirrored in historic pictures on the walls providing an eerie historical touchstone.Looking south out from the large arched windows, the World War I memorial and museum can easily be seen providing a clear shot of "Kansas City's Front Porch."

Dedicated on October 31st, 2014 for the centennial anniversary of Union Station, this self-guided exhibit tells the story of the station from its conception through construction, opening, operation, degradation, and restoration. Offering sweeping 2nd and 3rd-storey views, Union Station Stories provides rich context and stunning vantages of a l living piece of history. The exhibit entrance is inside the Southwest Elevator Chamber near the Pershing Street entrance.

Union Station Stories

Kansas City’s first train station was in the West Bottoms area near the Missouri River. Walt Disney’s family arrived there in 1911, when they moved to Kansas City from Marceline, MO. But that location flooded periodically, and railroad leaders decided to move the city’s terminal to its current location.Union Station opened on November 1, 1914, and Walt’s life would intersect with Kansas City’s new rail hub in many ways. He secured a job as a news butcher in 1915, riding from Union Station to many destinations in Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado, selling newspapers, drinks, and candy to passengers.One of Disney’s animators and Imagineers, Ward Kimball, also spent time in Union Station as a child. After hearing the long, slow announcements of arrivals and departures in Union Station’s Grand Hall, Ward created the famous Disneyland railway announcements in the same style, which are now heard at Disney Parks around the world.Walt Disney watched his family depart from Union Station to move back to Chicago in 1917. Later, in 1922, when Walt was living at his new Laugh-O-gram Studio in order to save money, he would visit Union Station once per week to shower. And in 1923, when Laugh-O-gram when bankrupt, Disney left Union Station for California on a first-class Santa Fe train, carrying a few changes of clothes and the last film he made in Kansas City, “Alice’s Cartoonland,” which became the foundation of the entire Walt Disney company.In 2024, the Disney company selected Kansas City’s Union Station as one of only three sites nationwide to host Disney100: The Exhibition, a century-long retrospective detailing the Disney company and its history. Exhibits trace local links to Walt, including a book he may have checked out from the Kansas City Public Library on animation, and the many films and creative properties that have made Disney a beloved name worldwide.

From the time Walt Disney’s family moved to Kansas City in 1911 until the young animator left for California in 1923, Disney’s path often led him to and through Kansas City’s train stations. Walt arrived at Union Depot in the West Bottoms in 1911, and he departed Kansas City in 1923 from Union Station with a dream, a film, and not much else in his suitcase. This building played an important role in Walt’s life, from welcoming and saying goodbye to family members to one of his first jobs selling sodas and newspapers to passengers. Union Station shaped many of Walt's early memories in Kansas City influencing Disney productions and theme parks in surprising ways.

Kansas City Union Station

Grand Plaza, Union Station

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

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Additional Information