Alexandria, VA – The most recent subject of Unseen Old Town is one you may have passed, but perhaps have never seen the interior. Our photo features the waiting room of Alexandria Union Station. The station was built in 1905 in a Federal Revival style and was called Union Station because it allowed several competing railroads to use the facility for passenger rail lines. This included, among others, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, and the Southern Railway. You might say it was a sister project to the Potomac Yard built in 1906 in the northern part of the city, with the similar purpose of unifying freight-carrying rail lines in one facility.
Alexandria Union Station has been architecturally modified several times over the years since its inception, but was mostly restored to its original style in 1996, with the exception of the glass enclosure that now connects the station with the adjoining baggage building. As with other public buildings constructed in the Jim Crow Era, the station originally had segregated waiting rooms, which were eliminated in the early to mid 1960s.
Additional and more detailed information about Alexandria Union Station and Alexandria railroad history can be found in an excellent article written by Al Cox, AIA, in the Fall 1996 issue of Historical Alexandria Quarterly, issued by the Office of Historic Alexandria.
