Los Angeles Union Station: The Last of the Great Railway Stations

Why is it significant?

Walk through the massive brass-trimmed entrance doors of Los Angeles Union Station and step into the vast, cathedral-like waiting room. Look up at the forty-foot ceiling of painted acoustic wood beams, the sixty-two-foot arched windows, and the gleaming Belgian marble wainscoting.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Walk through the massive brass-trimmed entrance doors of Los Angeles Union Station and step into the vast, cathedral-like waiting room. Look up at the forty-foot ceiling of painted acoustic wood beams, the sixty-two-foot arched windows, and the gleaming Belgian marble wainscoting. Opened in May nineteen thirty-nine, this is widely celebrated as the Last of the Great Railway Stations built in the United States.

Designed by father-and-son architects John and Donald Parkinson, the station is an architectural masterpiece blending Spanish Mission Revival, Southwestern adobe simplicity, and sleek streamline Art Deco, a hybrid style known as Mission Moderne. The massive leather armchair seating in the waiting hall was custom-built with thick padding to provide unprecedented comfort for transcontinental travelers.

Step out into the enclosed garden courtyards on either side of the concourse: surrounded by jacaranda trees, pepper trees, and towering palms, these quiet patios offered weary travelers stepping off the Super Chief train from Chicago their very first breathtaking taste of sunny, subtropical California.

Take in the gentle echoes of train departures. You have walked through the glamorous movie palaces, hidden cable cars, and pioneer roots of the City of Angels.