From losing a building to naming rights, our we losing local cultural and historical Significance in our cities?

Union Station Chicago is home to cross-country trains for a more traditional form of travel. On a trip to St. Louis, I was surprised to find that although I’m departing from Union Station Chicago, I’m arriving at Gateway Station St. Louis.

St. Louis has its own Union Station (as many cities do), but was renovated generations ago into a hotel, private event space, and shopping area. But are locals losing out culturally when cities sell out historical landmarks?

Romanticized Train Travel in America – What Happened?

Let’s get some background on the industry before digging into St. Louis Union Station’s story.

Long gone are the days of romanticized train travel, or perhaps they never existed? When I see an old movie or see an old photo of luxury train travel in America, I’m a little confused. Although I haven’t sprung for luxurious train travel accommodations, I’ve noticed even the “best” trains in America don’t compare to pop culture memory or old photos.

In terms of older films featuring the allure of train travel, I’m wondering if screenwriters were really giving us a reminder of what had been. Or, if they were trying to promote the industry?

The beautiful Pullman Palace Train Cars did in fact exist and a major part of the Golden Age of Train Travel. Imagine plush seating, including lots of space, carpets, beautiful lamps and sconces, white tablecloths on tables, and even armchairs. But what happened?

Train Demand Isn’t What It Used to Be

With the rise of car manufacturing and airlines, trains quickly lost steam in passenger demand. Cars were becoming affordable for the average American, and that’s where all the money went. Highway infrastructure greatly improved at this time.

Train travel took a dive as road trips became the romanticized All-American form of travel. Trains also couldn’t compete with air travel, which also sparked curiosity and delight of passengers. And speed was another major factor. Time is the biggest luxury after all.

Another blow, the federal government in 1951 was no longer relying predominantly on railway to transport mail. This usually balanced out lean times for the railway industry. Railroad lines began declining. Similar to how the federal government today provides support to the airline industry in times of need, so did the government for the railroad historically.

Train travel isn’t what it used to be, but personally I’m seeing more people having a reignited interest in trains. Especially younger people. But we’re all noticing the difference and longing for the golden age once again. Yet people are still taking what they can get with current train travel.

If this interest continues to grow, will we see anything resembling the Pullman Palace Trains in America? International train travel far eclipses that of America but will it spark a change in the US?

Chicago to St. Louis Via Amtrak

I wasn’t expecting much from my trip to St. Louis via Amtrak. The train itself was unremarkable, and the view had some fun sights but mostly underwhelming. Apologies to the Midwest—maybe I was sitting on the wrong side. Union Station in Chicago was the highlight of my travel.

It was my first train ride and I arrived too early. The seating in the building were wooden benches, which made me think of church. There wasn’t a ton of space, and Chicago doesn’t only have one line. I was a bit confused on how things will run once it gets busy.

While waiting, I peeked into the opulent Grand Hall. It reminded me of a museum. It was even quiet. I only took a few pictures since I was slightly intimidated by the enormous room. Also, felt like I wasn’t supposed to be standing around.

A Peek inside grand hall, union Station in Chicago

The lighting made the ceiling look like gold. The decorative trim of mini octagons lining the ceiling brought wonderful details. The center of the octagons looks like they have a sculpted flower in each. The skylight is massive and was renovated back in 2018 to better preserve the building.

The Grand Hall is lined with columns on all sides, showings its Greek inspiration. The wood cut designs on the top of the buildings almost look like vents. And the lamps reminded me of the lamps in the Shedd Aquarium, a nod back to the “good old days.”

Unfortunately, the benches were not set up in the Grand Hall. I have no clue as to why and would’ve loved to stare into the room as I waited for the train. This To Trains signs seemed more suited for children since it was completely colored gold. Like something in a movie that pops up and you’re suddenly being transported to a wonderous magical land.

The American Flag can be seen in the distance hanging vertically. There’s no meaning as far as I can tell. Only a reference, the flag should be hung vertically over a street. Makes me wonder if that happens to align since Union Stations is a large space.

Chicago’s Union Station was built in 1925, so this year will be its centennial. It’s a beautiful historic building, and there’s a sense of pride as a Chicagoan. Being used for what it was created, and a major aspect of transportation for our city. To anyone traveling, this may be the first thing they get to see in Chicago. Quite the welcoming.

Arriving in Gateway Station St. Louis – What Happened to Union Station St. Louis?

Gateway Station in St. Louis is quite different from Chicago Union Station. It’s much smaller, technically modern but resembles more an airport terminal than train station. It’s extremely efficient and absolutely gets the job done.

But there was no charm, no history, no grand entrance welcoming you to the great city of St. Louis. A missed opportunity for visitors and locals in terms of their city culture and history.

I wonder how the locals feel. The change occurred generations ago back in 1978, nearly 50 years. Most people haven’t known anything else. Only people in their golden years would’ve been able to witness Union Station in its glory days.

St. Louis, like overall train travel, just didn’t have enough passenger demand for the building to be used as a transportation hub. And the city itself didn’t grow to be as big a city as others in the Midwest (Chicago population 2.6 million). The current population of St. Louis is just under 300k.

To preserve the building and significance, it became a historical landmark in 1970. Once closed in 1978, plans were in place to reuse the building as a hotel. It reopened in 1985 as a mixed-use complex and is used that way today. It is privately owned by Lodging Hotel Management and is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Are we culturally losing ourselves by selling history away?

Although Union Station Grand Hall is open to the public, are we losing anything culturally by allowing historical landmarks to be owned privately? Chicago Union Station is owned by Amtrak, which is a federally chartered corporation. These are few and far between. Other examples include the Federal Reserve (banks were the first government-chartered corporation) and NASA. Per the Congressional Research Service, “charters are granted to organizations whose mission serves a public purpose that attracts private funding.”

Union Station was built for the people of St. Louis and as city infrastructure for transportation. It feels strange that it’s owned privately. Even though it’s a member of the National Trust for Historical Preservation, it’s also a luxury hotel and often hosts private events. The historical landmark is being preserved but is it only available to a select few?

Who really Gets to enjoy Union Station St. Louis?

When I checked for April 2025 availability, it’ll be closed 9 days of the month (including 3 of the 4 Saturdays that month. Even now in March, I would assume a low volume month, is unavailable 8 days (including 2 of the 4 Saturdays) for private events. Both months have it closed to the public for multiple consecutive days.

This is happening at a time when there’s strong economic concern, although events were planned long ago. It does seem rather high still.

I think the mixed-use format was meant to give the sense Union Station still belonged to the public in spirit. Since the historical building itself is being mostly enjoyed by luxury visitors.

Chicago Union Station is being used as a transportation hub, for which it was created. The public isn’t invited to enjoy a light show or anything similar. But you can still visit during travels. And there is even a tour if you’d like to visit the historical landmark. These tours, however, appear to be monthly and sell out quickly.

Selling Out in Chicago

But this is a problem for Chicago as well. More so in selling naming rights to significant buildings, we have now exchanged historical figures for corporations.

Cash gets exchanged and now people are expected to switch names of significant buildings. All in the snap of a finger. Especially difficult after generations of a single name. Even worse, the new names are not historical figures, a nod to local history, or an aspect relating to our culture.

They’re advertisements. We’re selling our city culture and history so companies can force their brands into our daily lives at the fraction of the cost of traditional marketing.

Even though many fading names were also originally businesses at times, there’s a huge difference between those that originated the building (or historical figures that contributed to a city) and those coming in to rent for as long as it’s useful to them.

In other words, commitment and providing long term value to a city (even over multiple projects). Historically, when buildings were named after its owners, it was because of all they invested into a city on top of the building itself. These companies provided jobs for several decades or made multiple different contributions to an area, which helped reinforce city infrastructure and stability.

Not just slapping your name on it because you paid to do so.

This is slightly different than the owner change of the originally named Sears Tower — now Willis Tower. Although it still causes the same pain point for the locals.

Another Decade, another name: Corporate Shuffle at Comiskey Park in Chicago

But I’ve also seen multiple name changes in a single generation, which is even worse than a single name change after a multiple generations. This happened with Comiskey Park, a baseball stadium, which switched to US Cellular Field and again to Guaranteed Rate Field. And again to Rate Field. All in the span of 23 years with different companies.

Interestingly, this institution has gone through many changes. There is an old and new building, an address change, and name changes that occurred before the corporate buyers. There was a back and forth between shorts spurts of the original name, White Sox Park, with the long-standing name of Comiskey Park.

I wonder if Comiskey Park, not the original name, won out because of the appreciation from the locals. Charles Comiskey bought a former city dump to build the baseball stadium back in 1909. He not only paid to build it, but he was also the founding owner of Chicago White Sox and the American League, which later combined with the National League for today’s Major League Baseball.

In his youth, he also played baseball professionally and after managed a team in St. Louis. I will go more in-depth behind the whole fiasco on Comiskey Park in a later post.

Locals Fight Back — Culturally

Locals fight back where they can. Chicagoans refer to the popular Millennium Park sculpture as the Bean, even though it’s called Cloud Gate. And another popular photo stop at Comed Education Pavilion immediately became the Honeycomb.

Locals are seemingly rejecting names of significant sculptures. This is being done in the name of preserving cultural history, rejecting names that doesn’t fit or are corporate sell outs.

When I’m looking up Chicago buildings, I’m often just using its address as a name since I’m often seeing more than one of various companies that used the building for several years. Using the address is the only thing I know won’t change about the building. But this is a loss itself.

I think the answer lies in the locals as we see what nicknames float to the top for popular buildings. A way to survive the corporate shuffling. The name changes aren’t as big a problem as long as the city keeps its nicknames. If that happens, the corporate branding becomes subheadings.

On my next post, we’ll look at St. Louis Union Station as it is today to see what all the fuss is about. But visiting Union Station got me thinking of the loss for the locals and how Chicago has a similar problem. From needing to sell due to industry change to selling voluntarily for the profit, the Cultural loss is all the same.

A shame not only for the locals but for international visitors. Seeing significant buildings in a city and having no need to learn the story behind the names because there are none. It’s happening all over the country and is unfortunately showing what we value most.