'i?IXw5?XGXY -- NOMENADClX FORM ! . ' ' 1 ; . . -

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SEE IF!STRUCTIONS IPI HOW TO COMPLf lE NATiQNALREGISTER FORMS i

. . HlsToRrc *Par: Station

.' A?4DlOiliCOhlMON

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~ i i 3 n . : ~ t a t i o n or His sour Pacific Station - I

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PtlBLI C ACC1UISLTION ,IN PA OCESS

,BEING CONSIDEZED

. . ST;IEET& #UMBEX.

- . ?02a;~kham and Victory . . ,NOT FOR ~ B L I ~ T I O N c~.ni,rown CONGRES;IONAL DISTRICT .

. 'Little: Rock - ,VICINITY OF - Second STATE , CODE C W N T Y CODE

STATUS L~~~~~~~~ . -VNOCNPIED

LWORK IH PROGRESS

ACCESSt3tE -YES: RESTFlltTED

LYE% UNRESTRICTED

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b

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STREET 6 NUMaEFI '

P. 0. Box 3295 OW. T W N S A T E

- . . ~ i t t ' l e Rock - Y ! C I N ~ O F ' Arkansas

DL~CAT~UN OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION . coua-se.

OEEDS. FTc County Cl erkl s Office

STtEEP C huMlER ~ u l asci County Courthous t

&tV.TChVN STATF ' Little Rock . Arkansas

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DCPJSmJRY I

Stlnt:;r R;CG;ICS I.. C l - C -- - ---

2 :Y. TVff'i ST AS E

CHECK ONE CHECK ONE - -

LEXCELLEKT ,DETERlOI?A?ED ,UNAtTEHIO LORIGIPJA~ SlTE X

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,GO09 ,RUINS ,ALTERCO sXightly ,MOVED PATE .re . i

,FAIR ,LI NWPDS~D A : ". - .

DESCRMETHE PaESENT A N 0 ORIGINAL ( IF KNOWMI PHYSICAL APPEARANCE , . r:

F Built in circa 1921, replacing z similar structure of 1911 vintage which was destroyed by fire, the Union Station building in Little Rock has senred continuously as a passen- ger depot on this site since 1872. The first railroad sewicing the station was the St. 1,ouis and Iron Mountain which began service in September of 1872. The building consists of a f our-story, fireproof, masonry constructed building of brick, concr$,g*e 2nd steel. Construction on the building commenced in 1920 and was completed in 1RL. It was historically operated as a passenger terminal for the ~isiauri PaciZic 1lai%8&d and of f ice headquarters for the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company f o r t he ~rkansk<i, - district. .The basement has .concrete f lqors and is, divided in??, .numerous sectzqns and small rooms which were especially. .designed f o r , the operation :.of a passenger ra ihodd 'sexvice. . ..The basement, contains 31,.341- square feet. . .The maiq flog-r, rjh4ch cont'ati;ks 27,133 square feet, was previously used for passenger service and included restau.F$nt and dining facilities. This floor is projected by the present smer to house app&xi- mately 40 small r e t a i l shops which will sell unusual and hard-to-get merchandise. .I"c will no t be a shopping center in the normal sense, but a boutique center,s~milax to developments such as Trolley Square in S a l t Lake City, Ghiradelli Square 2nd Thd . . ' I . 1 Cannery in San F~ancisco, and the Chattanooga Choo-Choo in Chattanooga.

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rile second f lc io r , which contains an identical 27,135 square feet, was divided into'!; - '

offic~s for railroad personnel and are presently under refurbishment to serve as h g ~ h ceilinged, sgacious offices u i t h modern heat ing and air conditioning added.

I T!le *LOP floor contains 15,405 square feet, and has been renovated. It 5s present19 i r use as a mclcrn office. floor. The ground floor of t h e station has been converted into - o x large restaurant and one large game area. Both resto~stions hzve preserved the walls, ceilings znd support columns of t h e original stat ion. I

I The south elevation-of -the.building is i t s principal facade facing diagonally toward the dokinto~m business section of Li t t le Rock and obliquely toward the State Capitol complex, which is five blocks t o t h e south, The exterior is a combination of brick add' :'skone, u i t h ornate carvings, fountains and ornate archways serving as 'the main entraitcel.i$to the

I building, The original waiting room was set off by terrazzo floors and co~umn3'xiarbled

I to the halfway poin t of t h e i r height, joined by marble en the exterior walls df.:t&& buif ding. Extensive plaster moulding served as the main interior design, which ha's .been preserved, A kiosk, originally used as a newsstand and soda fountain, is und&~:~ehtora- tion and is being brought hack as a functioning sodanfountain. . The floor-to-ceiling nensurement on the main level is 24 feet, and t h e spaciousness of t h e ceiling is .:'%.. . . balanced by proportional design the length and 3readth of the room. I .

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I The ,ground l eve l of the building, although original ly a working basement for the -rai2- road, contaifis numerous brick arches, presently unused pipes , and cven a nonfuncthging 1 stcan boilcr, which have been integrated i n t o t h e restoration of t h e building: -~h'e passenger stat ion fir hmtrak, which funct ions out of t h e building, is being rebuilt

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i:,: the basement of the building, w i t h e f fo r t s being made to recreate .the feeling and 1 anbiance of a 1920's rail;-oad station which acconbnodates t h e prescnt load factor goifig !

I acd conin2 from L i t t l e Rock. Second and t h i r d f2oors are p r i ~ ~ c i p a l l y unadnmd; boke%-er,! t he h a l l s are of terrazzo m t c r i a l , and baths on each floor contain a fibc~al amount of x;lar$lz ~ th ich was- comon to t h e era. .a , , SC:, C. --.

AREAS OF STGEII FICAP!CE -- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW

4RCHE?)LOGY.?F(EHISTORIC ,COMhtUNITf PLAKKlfiG -LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE ,RELlGlG:;

APCHEOLOGY-H ISTOAIC ,cons~~vanow ,UYJ ,SCIENCE

A C R ~ C U L ~ U R E ,EMH6MICS ,tlTERATURi ,SWLPtUF?L

A R C H I T ECTUiri ,EOUCATiON -hl I Ll TA RY ~ O C I A ~ J H U E , ~ A N ~ ~ A R T A ~

4 R T ,ENGINEEalMG -MUSIC ,THSATER

X ~ M M E R C E . ,EXPLORATION~SEZTCE~~EN~ ,P~ILOSOPHY YTR AP;SPO.?TA~QN

COMMUNICATIONS ANDUSTRY SUTICS'GOVEA AMEN ,ar~~;t rsrtmm - * ,INVENTION

In lB?3,-the Cairo aria Fulton Lines built i t s "first .rai.lroad station. This building w a s of w ~ 6 d . . c o n s t n c ~ i o n 2nd -was torn down in 1906. It was replaces with the first Union 1

i Staticin which w a s -completed 3n 1911 : -Xz w a s of +he Second .Empire. style, with - i t s J coxn%ce%-dth $rsckeu, vaguely classic windo;s and large mansard tower barely v is ib le 1 over Che roof. . . . - - " - - - : . .

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In f520, a businessman from B~rooklyn, New York, Charles S. Fallon, . was f2n&ically i opposed to cigarette smoking, publicized that he s e t fire to the Union Station because i he was angry about t h e srnaki~tg publ ic . No mention af legal action against him was made after that and it is assumed he nade the statement for publicity. The burning

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0% Union Station %as the largest braze that had occurred in Little Rock's ]-.istory at that tine.

rmpdiately following the f i re , t h e railroad establ ished offites in the S. H . Krtss ware- house'hear t h e depot site. It was hoped that the three r a i l roads operating into tittle Rock 311d Argenta [Karth Li t t l e Rock) could be persuaded to unite in us ing the s m e depot. This was where the name "Union Sta t ion" or iginated. Legal technicalities a ~ . d expensive conszruction nade the union inadvisable, but the name still is in common use today .

lrhen rai.lrcaa& ofEicials made known t he de ta i l s of what the new" station ~;oufd embod.y, an ardPf ~ c t said it would require at least a year to prepare adequate plans f o r such a st-~e and a like -period of t i m e would be required for ~cns t r i c t i on . That meant the ra-qfqtd? would be without a s t a t i o n i n Little Rock for two years. This was unthinkable. The -a%ck%tecturaP department of the Missouri Pacif5c Railroad in St .. Loais began prepara- atibh;,hf. plans f o r the various features of she b u i l d i n g in the order of t h e i r inportance, ~onskruction was b e g n zlmost before the n b b l e and ashes were ceol. . . ? ;-.. .! h e .general corrtracsor and eight s=bcontractors went to work at a pace which clipped nine 1 months off t h e estimated two years designing and building time. Since tmcmploynant w a s widespread st the t ine ,# skilled workers rere easi ly found. Materials were bought in large! quantities and shipped to the buglding s i t e by xail. More thzn 350 freight cars loaded 1 ~ i t h . ~ b n i l d i n g materials Ear the station \sere shipped t o L i t t l e Rock with a priority 1 ratink'that gave them first service on all t r a i n s . i

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The..pev station was opened So t h e p u b l i c on J c l y 31, 1921, r c i t l ? a total cnsstructian I cost ,bf $1 n ~ i l l ion. E . $1- Tuckcr of S t . Louis tca~ thc architect. TIE@ o r i g i n a l drawings ' ar8, .ik t h e posscssian of the current oxne-s.

5zfo1-c the demise- of the passeneer s e n icc by the 3lissouri P~cific R 2 i l r oad in 1970,

Form so id-300~ I R e w 1Y+7G1

1; 3 i'1'l.U STA1 tS ULPhK1'31ENT OF TWt I K7't:K EUR NA'TIONAL PARK SERVICE

NATIONAL REGISTER OF 4315TTORIC P U C E 3 INYEISTCIXY -- PJOMINAXON FOXM

CONTI NUATION S H E E T Description ITEM NUMBER j' PAGE 2

An unusual architectural feature of the building is that a crawl space exists between the main floor and second floor, and between the second and t h i rd , and third f l o o r and roof, which was designed i n t o the building to ease the servicing of electrical and plumbing connections,

lWen the building *-as restored from the 1920 fire, the clock tower, which vas not daiiaged in the fire, was restored with the old brick rescued from the fire. On either

the lobby area. These were f in i shed in marble ti lts which still remain. The stone s i d e of the tower, a loggia 41'10" x 15' wide was restored for t h e main entrance into I

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t r i m en t he building is KO. I Bedford limestone backed up with w h i t e Portland cement . mortar. T h e s x r s r i o r x n l l s a r e g r a y p r e s s e d b r i c k t o n a t c h f h e e x f s t i n g b r i c k o f the 1 structure built in 1911. The exterior brick walls range in thickness from 17'1 t o 1 2 " . I The arched windows on the f i r s t l e v e l and the clock tower are reminiscent of the 2Gth 1 Century Iralim Revival architecture. There are seven stone arches along the f ront oC I t h e building which also relate to t h e 20th Century Italian Revival s t y l e .

I All partitions r e r e built with 4" gypsum blocks; doors were 3'2" x 7', with columns ! 12" x 12" on the upper floors, and 18'" 18'3~1 the basemem leve l . Hallsays and lobby areas are f inished in 12" x 12" marble t i l e s . There are sec t ions of t h e same

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marble in the lobby area which cxrend upward from the floor 8 feet. There are sky- I

lights on the second and third f l oo r levels. On the t h i r d floor, there is a large f i reproof vault w i t h heavy metal double doors.

t: S*:II'F_U STA'l LS Bl<P:\K7 hltiST OF ' rf1E I N'l'LK I U K NATIONAL PARK SER'SICE

FOR RPS USE OMLY

PATE E WERED

CONTI M U ATION SHEET Significance ITEM NUMBER 8 PAGE I ? I b

Union Station was a meeting place of many prominent persons. during World Ifzr 11, it w a s :he p o i n t of departure for soXdiers from Camp Robinson when their training was i I completed and they were ready to be shipped t o the war zones. The station was also . a point of arrival for t h e incoming recruits who would get t h e i r first taste of " 1 t he . military life. I

I I The restaurant, located at the west end of the lobby area, wa$ one of the larger eating

establishments in the c i t y . There was a c o u n t e r which was u s e d f o r fast service and I

din ing tables which were used f o r persons with more t i m e to devote t o their dining. I P~esident Harry S. Truman used the station as a whistle stop during h i s campaign for 1 h i s Eulf term in ofzice. I

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Inen Senator Joseph T. Robinson died in JUG 1937, many of the senators and represen- xatives from Washington, D. C. came by tra in to pay t h e i r f i n a l respects, and came through Union Station.

The railroad first known as the St. Louis, I ron Mountain and southern Railway. The Arkansas branch extended from Little Rock to the EIisssuri state l i n e in September of 1872. It was the main artery for d i s t r i b u t i n g immigrants and exchange of f r e igh t through t h e Great Southwest territory.

In 8&83, Gleason's H o t e l was located- at t he Union Stat ion and was known as a "first class hetel." It was three stories high, 4 0 9 ZOO', and grounds covered 112 acre. There was anple accommodations for 50 guests. The dining room seated 100 and lias furnished in elegant, modern style. There were 22 persons'emplo~ed by the hotel, and, quoting f r an Little Rock - Past, Present and Future, -- '!The cuisine of Gleasonls is however a feature to which we wish to give special mention. It is a l l t ha t the mast fastidious epicure or bon vivant could-desire, and has won for i t s sumptuously l a i d tables a very wide reputation among the traveling public and t h a t class of persons KIIO know how t o enjoy and appreciate really artistic cookery with t h e substantial elements not lef t our. 'l

In 1888, there appears an ad foE the Iron Mountain Route '*with 3 trains d a i l y t o St. Louis, Texas and Southwest, with no change of cars to Los ilngeles and San Francisco,'? H. C . To'msend of St. Zouis was general passenger and ticket agent; J. A - !foodson of Little Rock was assistant general passenger agent-

The IS90 Guidc to Littlc Rock statccl tlze I ~ o n blountain r o u t e crtcred Ax-k;lr;sas in f 853 , the populztion of the s ta tc a t thnt tine was nbout 200,000, an< by IS90 hat1 in:reased

NATIONAL SEGISTEB OF HISTOXIC PMCES I INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FUXM DATE ENTERED I

I

;car= f<a l'l.YGa~ ;Flew i0-7s)

C ~ N Y I N U A ~ O N SHEET Signif icance ITEM NUMBER 8 PAGE 3

L S I - ~ L I ) SI'X-TLS D ~ ; P J Z I ~ I ' X I I : S T 0 k - r t ~ t I ~ ' I I : K ~ O K NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

On May 12, 1917, a11 railroads, lands and other property of the'St. Louis, Tron Mountain and Southern system were sold and deeded to the Missouri Pacific Rkilroad Company. The present Missouri Pacific stat ion and yards occupy the same s i t e used by the Cairo and .

Fulton hen it f irst came to Little Rock in 1872. The new [present] s tat ion was f in i shed in 1921, which replaced t h e old station of the early 1870's.

FOR NPS USE ONLY

RECEIVED

Arkansas G a z e t t e , November 19, 1920 Arkansas Democrat, November 19, 1920 Pulaski Kagazine, V o l . 3, No. 5 , March 1974 Quapaw Qunrter Chronicles, Vol. 1, Xo. 2, Ilay 1974

. ACaFAGE OF NOMIN~TEQ PROPERTY 5 . 6 UTM REFERENCES

A W I I I ~ I ~ ~ I I I + I J

z 7; , NORTHING BW u u

ZONE ERSflNG NORTHING

VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION

Bounded on the East by Victoky Stree t ; on t h e South by Irest Markham Street; and-on the Morth'and West by the Missouri Pacific Railroad tracks. *This location is 14'blocks west of Plain Street in Little Rock, Arkansas.

. ' .*.. %*

LIST ALL STATES AN13 COUNTiES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOY NDARIES 1

STATE CODE

Arkansas 05 Pulaski 119 '

STATE CODE COW NTY CODE

wPDRM PXEFARED BY' Ir;AF,tE C TITLE

James C. Becknelf, President F~hnrxry 17; Is77 OilG4NlZAYiON DATE

Union Square STREET & N U M B 3 TELEPHONE

b!arkham E Victory Streets 372-1229 CITY oa ; w ~ w STATE

Little Rock Arkansas 1 4 STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER CEBTIFICATION

THE EVALUATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PRQPERW WITHIN THE STATE 1s: F~ATIONA~ - STATE- + LOCAL

As the dssignatcd State Historic Preservation Officsrfor the National H~storic Preservation Act of 1968 lPuMie Law 89-665). 1

hereby nominate this propeq for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the Nationat ~ & k

. . STATE HI!PO.SIC ?RESCRVklTIQN OFFICER SIGNATURE - - .---.=. ---, TITLE state Historic Preservation O f f i c e r D A F ~ 8 , 1977

"

3 I4 E.E ::3Y G E i l f l C 'TH4iJHIS P80PE2YYqiS INCLUDDE DX SHE SATlOhlAt i7ECISTEir .. . - DATE

~ELTSR, OFFICE O F A R C ~ I I E O ~ O E ~ Y AND SISTORtC PRESgd?'lXCIO?l . . ZzSS: . . DATE

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UNITED S?;2TES DEPARTMEN'I OF 1K'rEP,IOK FlATlONAO PARK SERYlCE

NATIONAL REGISTER OF XIST042JC PLACES BX03ZRTH PHOTOGRAPH FORM

SEE 1NSTRYCTIONS IN HOW TO COMPLETE NATIOiYAL REGISTER FOAMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES --IENCLOSE WITH PHOTOGRAPH

NAME HISTORIC

mPac Sta t ian AHDlOR COMMON

Union Statian . a G, LOCATION an.-rown L i t t l e Rock v r a ~ l n OF couNn Pulaski . s T A ~ E Arkansas

' ;a PHOTO REFERENCE PHOTO CREDIT B O ~ DCUP~ DATE OF PHOTO 1977

' NEGATlVE:IlEO AT Arkansas H i s tdric Presematian Program i

~ E S C ~ ~ I B E V T E W . D~AECTIQN. ETC IF DISTRICT. GIVE BUILDING NAME STREET - PHOTONO.

fzcade, viewed from the southeast 1