Tour of St. Louis Union Station

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The St. Louis Union Station is a fascinating structure with its vaulted metal roof slats covering a man-made pond where trains used to idle, its wanna-be mall portion, grand hotel-venue space and intermittent historical displays throughout the building.



The building itself is worth seeing as there are original tiles, mosaics, and stained glass windows even in "mundane" places such as the restrooms!




The main entrance is beautiful and often used as a venue space. I don't have any photos of the outside of the building or the dramatic fountain in front, but they make for a stunning spectacle. There is an archway in the entrance of the building which, upon my first visit to Union Station as a teenager, my dad demonstrated that a person can whisper to a friend on the other side of the room by facing the wall of the arch.




My one major critique of Union Station is that the mall portion of Union Station is sadly lacking in interesting stores. There is a food court, a popular fudge shop, a candy store, but too many empty or sub-par store spaces. I do hope the "powers that be" in charge of Union Station will have an epiphany of some sort and draw in more in-demand businesses or re-purpose the space altogether.



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