UNION STATION TIMELINE
Narratives: Wartime & The Long Decline
Audience: Families and students that visit Union Station.
* Music from the 1940’s
WARTIME:
Union Station Information from main website:
1945: Passenger traffic hits a record 678,363 travelers w/ a significant numbers of armed forces personal passing through Union Station on their way home from WW II.
1940?: The era of R.A. Long. Lumber Baron, developer, investor, newspaper owner, millionaire, philanthropist, ends.
Union Station has a collection of significant items that represents the history of Kansas City.
Union Station Kansas City Book:
Gasoline and rubber rationing made trains more popular. pg. 140
The numbers of tickets sold: 365,780 to 1,169,995. pg. 140
Train passenger volume swelled in 1940 from 59,474 to 72,302 at the wars end. pg. 140
Any trains that were less than 40% full were shut down by the Office of Defence Transportation. pg. 140
Waiting room resembled an army camp.
The loud speaker comes on and announces that we were attacked at Pearl Harbor and the United States have declared war on Japan and Germany. An African American women started singing “God Bless America The Land That I Love”. There are two different sources that this fable comes from. Two different women that it could have been. Marian Anderson and Pearl Bailey. Neither of them mention it in their autobiography. The Union Station didn’t have loud speakers at the time and thus debunks the myth. Either fact or fiction it embodied the spirit of the American passengers and the tension between the situation at hand. pg. 140
The marriage factory - A temporary mating ritual. In the crowd at the gates a man and a women traveling alone locked eyes. The soldier knew the women’s predicament: Little chance of getting on board. Without a word spoken, he motions the women over and gets her through the military check point with him. He flirted with her but then they went their separate ways.
Travelers aid society. 1,000 requests a day. For money they could use for food and directions.
Upstairs at the ticket counters women were given jobs for the first time. People would try to take advantage of them.
Right after the war ended business took a holiday across the city and the Fred Harvey restaurant at union station had 60 - 100 people in line constantly.
When the war was declared over people rejoiced while they were waiting.
MISC.
People were being torn apart from one another. A very emotional sight to see.
They handled airplane motors, and 2,000 lbs bombs. Other than that they were not outfitted for military production or support. pg. 148
It wasn’t very patriotically embellished. People were so busy with travelling they didn’t really have time for patriotic embellishments. pg. 148
the 1940’s was the busiest Union Station ever was.
Mail was the largest cargo business at the time. pg. 148
Christmas day in 1943 seven dozen boxcars stuffed with holiday greeting sat on the sidings around the station’s grounds. Waiting to be unloaded. Not enough man power was to be found to help unload everything in time. pg. 149.
It was connected to a post office. See above.
They sorted 2,000,000 feet of catalogs and letters in one week. During the Christmas season it was just worse.
1945 - News came over the loud speakers that the war had ended. pg. 150.
TESTIMONIALS:
Bill Lawrence
Sally Martin Rice
David Pence
Walter Lewis
Edna Sutton
Isak Federman
THE LONG DECLINE:
“Heady years after World War II masked the oncoming decrease in rail passenger travel.” pg. 160
Week before Christmas 1947: Charles Clancy had been there since the beginning, first as a train caller, then as an assistant stationmaster, and now as a stationmaster. He had been there since the first days when every Kansas city citizen rushed to see the new industrial palace. He had been there in the late ‘20s, too, when the palace was packed with and he had wrestled a steer to the marble floor. He had been there during the depression, when the crowds dwindled, and during the second world war, when they re-emerged. And now again post holiday seemed to signal a return to peacetime prominence. pg. 158
1947: Shoppers waited in line inside Harvey stores to order Christmas gifts. Yes, the station was humming, back to normal, back to the way it used to be. That old adage that you couldn’t go back to union station without seeing someone you knew held true. Sure, train traffic had dipped from the war years but who didn’t expect that? War rationing had ended, troop movements slowed to a trickle, and car sales had bounced back after being all but nil during the war years. Yet people were still riding the rails. Better yet, they were riding more than during the depression, more at least at Union Station than any year since 1930. pg. 158
The passenger train business was shriveling up. The postwar slowdown that was inevitable after trains’ wartime dominance turned out to be the start of a precipitous decline. The number of passengers nationally dropped 13 straight years, to about one-third of the wartime peak. During this period, too the city of Kansas City suffered its own slide, plunging from the ranks of Americas’ top 20 metropolises as its urban neighborhoods hollowed out. pg. 161
These were obvious signs for Kansas City’s beloved train depot. For, if there was one constant in its life, it was this as go the railroads and the city so goes Union Station. pg. 161
Santa Fe launched a new stream liner out of Kansas City, the Kansas City Chief, with overnight service between Union Station and Chicago . The Kansas City Southern, too, re-equipped its southern belle and cut the running time to New Orleans by 14%. pg. 161
These bright spots, however, became momentary blips in an otherwise bleak business. From the wartime peak of nearly 1 billion passengers, the number of train travelers nation-wide fell below 800 million in 1946. bellow 600 million in 1949, and bellow 400 million in 1957
Tickets Sold & Trains Handled:
The arrived in 1949 to study the Fred Harvey operations. Restaurant revenue was down one-third since the war. Sessions reported, and the eateries no longer turned a profit. pg. 166
“Failure to modernize will be accompanied by the risk of gradual deterioration of the remarkably high prestige which Fred Harvey enjoy in Kansas City.” - 1949 study by consultants. pg. 166
QUESTIONS TO ASK:
Who was R.A. Long? What was his impact on the Union Station in 1940.
Did they transport any other materials other than soldiers.
Do they have a passenger manifest or log? A documentation of passengers transported, tickets sold, trains used, etc.
Were there ever fights for seats on the train?
Who created Union Station? Who designed it? Who’s idea was it?
Where there any buildings created to aid in transportation during the 40’s?
How long have the collection series been around?
Any relations to Corinthian Hall?
What year did Fred Harvey restaurant open?
Did some mail just get trashed due to backup?
NOTES FROM LECTURE:
The biggest time for union station.
One of two of every soldier that was leaving the us passed through Union Station.
Period of the most trains.
Period of the most passengers.
Harvey dining house was open on VJ day when most others weren't.
Union Station became a facility to support the war effort.
People would come to the Union Station to see the news reels about the war before movies.
Early 40’s the starts would come from the east coast to the west coast and would stop in Kansas City.
The 40’s was an era of sadness with families being torn apart so the men could go off to war.
Narratives: Wartime & The Long Decline
Audience: Families and students that visit Union Station.
* Music from the 1940’s
WARTIME:
Union Station Information from main website:
1945: Passenger traffic hits a record 678,363 travelers w/ a significant numbers of armed forces personal passing through Union Station on their way home from WW II.
1940?: The era of R.A. Long. Lumber Baron, developer, investor, newspaper owner, millionaire, philanthropist, ends.
Union Station has a collection of significant items that represents the history of Kansas City.
Union Station Kansas City Book:
Gasoline and rubber rationing made trains more popular. pg. 140
The numbers of tickets sold: 365,780 to 1,169,995. pg. 140
Train passenger volume swelled in 1940 from 59,474 to 72,302 at the wars end. pg. 140
Any trains that were less than 40% full were shut down by the Office of Defence Transportation. pg. 140
Waiting room resembled an army camp.
The loud speaker comes on and announces that we were attacked at Pearl Harbor and the United States have declared war on Japan and Germany. An African American women started singing “God Bless America The Land That I Love”. There are two different sources that this fable comes from. Two different women that it could have been. Marian Anderson and Pearl Bailey. Neither of them mention it in their autobiography. The Union Station didn’t have loud speakers at the time and thus debunks the myth. Either fact or fiction it embodied the spirit of the American passengers and the tension between the situation at hand. pg. 140
The marriage factory - A temporary mating ritual. In the crowd at the gates a man and a women traveling alone locked eyes. The soldier knew the women’s predicament: Little chance of getting on board. Without a word spoken, he motions the women over and gets her through the military check point with him. He flirted with her but then they went their separate ways.
Travelers aid society. 1,000 requests a day. For money they could use for food and directions.
Upstairs at the ticket counters women were given jobs for the first time. People would try to take advantage of them.
Right after the war ended business took a holiday across the city and the Fred Harvey restaurant at union station had 60 - 100 people in line constantly.
When the war was declared over people rejoiced while they were waiting.
MISC.
People were being torn apart from one another. A very emotional sight to see.
They handled airplane motors, and 2,000 lbs bombs. Other than that they were not outfitted for military production or support. pg. 148
It wasn’t very patriotically embellished. People were so busy with travelling they didn’t really have time for patriotic embellishments. pg. 148
the 1940’s was the busiest Union Station ever was.
Mail was the largest cargo business at the time. pg. 148
Christmas day in 1943 seven dozen boxcars stuffed with holiday greeting sat on the sidings around the station’s grounds. Waiting to be unloaded. Not enough man power was to be found to help unload everything in time. pg. 149.
It was connected to a post office. See above.
They sorted 2,000,000 feet of catalogs and letters in one week. During the Christmas season it was just worse.
1945 - News came over the loud speakers that the war had ended. pg. 150.
TESTIMONIALS:
Bill Lawrence
Sally Martin Rice
David Pence
Walter Lewis
Edna Sutton
Isak Federman
THE LONG DECLINE:
“Heady years after World War II masked the oncoming decrease in rail passenger travel.” pg. 160
Week before Christmas 1947: Charles Clancy had been there since the beginning, first as a train caller, then as an assistant stationmaster, and now as a stationmaster. He had been there since the first days when every Kansas city citizen rushed to see the new industrial palace. He had been there in the late ‘20s, too, when the palace was packed with and he had wrestled a steer to the marble floor. He had been there during the depression, when the crowds dwindled, and during the second world war, when they re-emerged. And now again post holiday seemed to signal a return to peacetime prominence. pg. 158
1947: Shoppers waited in line inside Harvey stores to order Christmas gifts. Yes, the station was humming, back to normal, back to the way it used to be. That old adage that you couldn’t go back to union station without seeing someone you knew held true. Sure, train traffic had dipped from the war years but who didn’t expect that? War rationing had ended, troop movements slowed to a trickle, and car sales had bounced back after being all but nil during the war years. Yet people were still riding the rails. Better yet, they were riding more than during the depression, more at least at Union Station than any year since 1930. pg. 158
The passenger train business was shriveling up. The postwar slowdown that was inevitable after trains’ wartime dominance turned out to be the start of a precipitous decline. The number of passengers nationally dropped 13 straight years, to about one-third of the wartime peak. During this period, too the city of Kansas City suffered its own slide, plunging from the ranks of Americas’ top 20 metropolises as its urban neighborhoods hollowed out. pg. 161
These were obvious signs for Kansas City’s beloved train depot. For, if there was one constant in its life, it was this as go the railroads and the city so goes Union Station. pg. 161
Santa Fe launched a new stream liner out of Kansas City, the Kansas City Chief, with overnight service between Union Station and Chicago . The Kansas City Southern, too, re-equipped its southern belle and cut the running time to New Orleans by 14%. pg. 161
These bright spots, however, became momentary blips in an otherwise bleak business. From the wartime peak of nearly 1 billion passengers, the number of train travelers nation-wide fell below 800 million in 1946. bellow 600 million in 1949, and bellow 400 million in 1957
Tickets Sold & Trains Handled:
The arrived in 1949 to study the Fred Harvey operations. Restaurant revenue was down one-third since the war. Sessions reported, and the eateries no longer turned a profit. pg. 166
“Failure to modernize will be accompanied by the risk of gradual deterioration of the remarkably high prestige which Fred Harvey enjoy in Kansas City.” - 1949 study by consultants. pg. 166
QUESTIONS TO ASK:
Who was R.A. Long? What was his impact on the Union Station in 1940.
Did they transport any other materials other than soldiers.
Do they have a passenger manifest or log? A documentation of passengers transported, tickets sold, trains used, etc.
Were there ever fights for seats on the train?
Who created Union Station? Who designed it? Who’s idea was it?
Where there any buildings created to aid in transportation during the 40’s?
How long have the collection series been around?
Any relations to Corinthian Hall?
What year did Fred Harvey restaurant open?
Did some mail just get trashed due to backup?
NOTES FROM LECTURE:
The biggest time for union station.
One of two of every soldier that was leaving the us passed through Union Station.
Period of the most trains.
Period of the most passengers.
Harvey dining house was open on VJ day when most others weren't.
Union Station became a facility to support the war effort.
People would come to the Union Station to see the news reels about the war before movies.
Early 40’s the starts would come from the east coast to the west coast and would stop in Kansas City.
The 40’s was an era of sadness with families being torn apart so the men could go off to war.
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