This past Christmas season, I fell in love with Union Station

This past Christmas season, I fell in love with Union Station. I’ve spent some time at the Station before, and we always try to visit Celebration at the Station over Memorial Day weekend, but this Christmas I realized just what a treasure Union Station is for our community.

The history of this building is part of what makes it so special. I remember driving by the empty building when I was younger, wondering what it once was. At the height of its days as a rail station, Union Station handled over 600,000 passengers a year. The decline of train travel in the 1950s and beyond led to a decline in the need for the building. By the late 1970s, passenger train service in Kansas City no longer required a huge station. In 1985, Amtrak, the only remaining passenger train service, moved operations to a smaller location, and the station closed.

I remember the excitement in 1996 when Kansas and Missouri teamed up for the bi-state tax to begin raising money to rebuild and restore the Station. When it opened in 1999, I remember walking in and reveling in the beauty and grandeur or the architecture. I recall pausing under the clock and imagining myself a passenger in the 1940s trying to spot a loved one. My favorite memory of my first visit to the Station was standing in the middle of the huge lobby, looking up at the intricately carved detail on the ceiling.

Yet, after visiting in 1999 to see the renovated facility, I never really went back. That changed this Christmas when I decided to take the kids to see the free model train exhibit. As soon as we walked into the building, I saw the same wonder in their eyes that I remember from my first visit in the 90s. They stood in the middle of the huge lobby, staring up at the ceiling with mouths open as I once did. Like me, they have never seen such a grand building before.

As we began to explore the building and meander our way towards the trains, I was surprised by just how much Union Station has to offer. I didn’t know that public funding no longer carries the facility, but rather ticket sales from its exhibits, theaters, and attractions are what pay for its upkeep, along with donations and grants.

After we saw the trains, we had to take the kids to Science City, where they dug for dinosaur bones, played in water, and even rode a bike on a trapeze. Regnier Extreme Screen was next on our list, where we took in a show on the five-and-a-half story tall screen. What we intended to be a morning excursion turned into a full day of family fun.

After this family day, I am hooked on Union Station again. With the traveling exhibits that come through, no visit to the Station is ever the same. We already have plans to visit in March when the “Titanic, The Artifact Exhibition” comes through, and we have tickets for “Diary of a Worm, a Spider, and a Fly” in March as well.

Have you experienced Union Station recently? If you haven’t, then you need to take yourself over there and see all that the Station offers.