11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell to The Wrecking Ball (And the Crappy Stuff Built in Their Place) (mall, station)

[DeaconJ]

When MARTA was built in the 1970s, Downtown Atlanta lost relatively few buildings. One very ornate building, the 6-story Eiseman Building (1901), was demolished to make way for the Five Points MARTA Station...but the hand-sculpted terra cotta facade was carefully dismantled, then reassembled inside the new station.

Eiseman Building (H.D. Kittinger Co.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10054722@N07/3673797773/ (broken link)

MARTA Five Points Station



Eiseman Facade, inside Five Points Station

5 points on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacecamp/656135873/ - broken link)


the reality of the situation on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacecamp/2245971528/ - broken link) 102_4240 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/28073961@N03/3425317052/ - broken link)

[DeaconJ]

1. Atlanta's Piedmont Hotel (1903) was demolished in the mid-1960s and replaced by the 35-story Equitable Building.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10054722@N07/3674606066/ (broken link)


Equitable Building - Atlanta, Georgia - June, 2006 -002a on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/artefaqscorporation/3123334804/ - broken link)



2. Atlanta's first highrise, the 1892 Equitable Building, was demolished in 1971 and replaced by the 28-story Trust Company Building. 3 of the 20-foot Corinthian marble columns were preserved and are displayed in front of the current Equitable Building 2 blocks away.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10054722@N07/3674605968/ (broken link) Public Art Woodruff Park on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gt7348b/167952646/ - broken link)


Columns from the Original Equitable Building on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironchapman/104987671/ - broken link)

[SharpHawkeye]

I hope this isn't too off-topic, but since the article was about train stations, I'll throw this in.



Here is our old Rock Island depot in Iowa City. After the railroad stopped serving it, the building was chopped into units and rented out. It then fell into disrepair and supposedly was looking very close to the wrecking ball.

Now, with the big push to get passenger rail going again, the city is going to buy and renovate the historic building soon to hopefully start Amtrak service in a few years.

So, my point is that while a lot of the grand old depots are gone, there's still hope for many of them. And, of course, that's not even counting the success stories like Kansas City's Union Station or the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal.

[costello_musicman]

COLUMBUS, OH

http://www.clevelandskyscrapers.com/...ionstation.jpg

[OyCrumbler]

It's bizarre that so many of these buildings destroyed were replaced with things that actually offered less at the most likely greater cost of demolishing the building (as opposed to simply retrofitting and renovating). Just what in the hell are/were people thinking?

[CHIP72]

One positive about the destruction of New York Penn Station is I believe it really stimulated the historic preservation movement in the U.S. I'd rather have that station still around though. (At least New York Grand Central Station, Hoboken Terminal, and Newark Penn Station, all attractive and interesting buildings, still stand and are still major railroad facilities.)

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by TheWereRabbit

That's kinda cool that they kept the ceiling but at the same time it just feels so bastardized and its almost worse to keep the carcasses of the beautiful building it once was. Ahh, and it really was great

As of now, he's not planning on going through with tearing down City Hall but I think it'll bounced around for quite a while. If it ever happens a LOTTTT of thought needs to be put into what is going to go there. And they would probably move city hall to the seaport which so far is not the new hip neighborhood it was planned to be. Hopefully Menino will win reelection this year so he can follow through with it, but I also hope it runs smoothly and "reasonably" cheaply if it does happen.

For those of you who don't know the monstrosity that Hoarfrost is referring to:


And here is the brutal rape of Scollay Sq that made this brick wasteland:
Demolition of Scollay Square 1960 - 1963



(PS- as ugly as it is I have some great memories at City Hall Plaza and will probably miss it if it ever goes....just a little)

Interesting link! Ever hear the old Kingston Trio song called the MTA? It's a political song from the 50s decrying subway fare increases. This explains the line: "Charlie's wife goes down to the Scollay Sqaure station every day at a quarter past two, and through the open window she hands Charlie a sandwich as the train comes rumblin' through..."

[Ben Around]

Here in the Twin Cities, the Great Northern station was demolished in the 70s, but the Milwaukee Road station still stands. The train shed has been converted to an indoor ice skating rink. In St. Paul, the magnificent Union Station still stands, most of it unused, but much of the waiting room converted to restaurants. We still have passenger trains that come here, but they stop at an ugly little depot called Midway that Amtrak built in the 1970s in a crappy warehouse neighborhood in the middle of nowhere halfway between St Paul and Minneapolis.

[DeaconJ]

Macon, Georgia's Terminal Station (1916) closed in 1975. It was purchased by the city in 2002 through a TEA grant and refurbished as an office/retail/transportation center. It is by far Georgia's grandest surviving rail station.

Macon is filled with grand historic architecture...it's amazing that such a small city was able to preserve so many beautiful structures.


Terminal Station on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ibison4/2233448459/ - broken link) Segregation in Macon GA on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/yure115/3183314414/ - broken link)


Terminal Station on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/drivebybiscuits1/275827251/ - broken link) Macon Terminal Station on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/luxomni/2116887136/ - broken link)

[Hoarfrost]

Oh God, I hate that 70's brutalist nonsense.