While Lincoln fantasized of having a union depot, one that would serve several or all railroads in the city, Omaha planned for one even before the first railroad arrived. And its latest extant, art deco union station stands today as the Durham Museum while early iterations exist primarily as photos or written descriptions.
Omaha’s railroad history began in 1859 when President Abraham Lincoln met with Gen. Grenville Dodge in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to discuss the route of the transcontinental railroad. The U.S. enacted the Pacific Railway Act in 1862, but the project remained largely fallow because of the Civil War. Omaha, however, desirous of staying ahead of the game, set aside several square blocks of land to be used for a depot and associated grounds, with additional land dedicated similarly about 18 months later.
In July 1865, Union Pacific Railroad laid the first rails in Omaha. Even though the western terminus of the railroad was in Council Bluffs, there was no bridge over the Missouri River, so all construction materials came up the river by steamboat. That meant the Nebraska side of the river, three miles west of milepost zero at the Davenport Dock, became the obvious point to begin construction.
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With passengers and freight having to be ferried across the river, Union Pacific built a small frame depot near what would become Seventh and Chicago streets. When the Union Pacific met the Central Pacific at Promontory Summit in 1869, a second depot was constructed near Ninth and Leavenworth. At roughly the same time, the Union Pacific moved its offices from the old ferry building/temporary territorial capitol to the Herndon House Hotel at Ninth and Douglas.
With the March 1872 completion of the Missouri River railroad bridge, Omaha donated even more land for a Union Pacific depot with the proviso that it would be a union station accessible to all railroads and that all west-bound Union Pacific trains would be assembled on the depot grounds. If the Union Pacific did not build the requisite depot and office on the grounds, the land would revert to the city. This further strengthened Omaha’s position as the true eastern railroad terminus.
The Union Pacific released plans for an elaborate, three-story building at Seventh Street with the depot and offices in the same building. Sadly, this structure was not built. Instead, architect Alfred Dufrene designed a block-long building at 10th and Mason on the south side of the Union Pacific’s tracks which was open at both ends. Becoming known as "the cowshed," the depot was not considered a success by many Omahans because even the slightest of winds brought the weather inside.
In 1875, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed Council Bluffs as the western terminus of the transcontinental railroad, meaning that milepost zero was on the east bank of the river, not in Omaha. The Union Pacific then built a two-story transfer depot and hotel at Council Bluffs. The Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, perhaps unhappy with the cowshed or because of the many construction delays, declined use of the depot and built its own facility south of the Union Pacific’s in 1878.
The Missouri Pacific Railroad began using the cowshed in 1882, but by 1889 the structure was judged unsafe and razed. The steel roof trusses were salvaged and used in building a freight depot at Ninth and Jackson. Another temporary passenger depot ensued while the Union Pacific and Burlington & Missouri River Railroad joined in forming the Omaha Union Depot Co. to build a new union station. The city gave more land resulting in several more elaborate plans.
The depression of 1893 entered the picture, which ultimately forced the sale of the Union Pacific to the Harriman Corp. of New York City for just over $108 million. Harriman reorganized the railroad and in December 1899 completed a new masonry depot which served five railroads and was supposedly one of the largest in the U.S. In the meantime, the Burlington completed its new depot to the south also on the 10th Street viaduct.
In 1927, Union Pacific architect Gilbert Stanley of California created a new, larger and more elaborate depot. The extant art deco, terra cotta station was completed in 1931 by Peter Kiewit & Cons to serve up to 8,000 passengers a day at a cost of $1.25 million.
As railroad passenger service declined, the Omaha Union Station closed in 1971-72. The following year it was donated to Omaha. In 1975 the totally renovated building opened as the Western Heritage Museum. Today, it's on the National Register of Historic Places, having had its name changed to the Durham Museum.
Meanwhile, the old, repurposed steel trusses from the cowshed to a freight warehouse were resurrected yet again in 1988, with about 75 percent of the masonry freight building’s walls as the Union Pacific’s Harriman Dispatch Center.
Historian Jim McKee, who still writes with a fountain pen, invites comments or questions. Write to him in care of the Journal Star or at jim@leebooksellers.com.