While we were spending a week in Seattle, this art-glass aficionado had to make a pilgrimage to Dale Chihuly’s Museum of Glass in nearby Tacoma. Our first stop in Tacoma was this lovely historic Union Station. Built in 1911, it was designed by the same architects (Reed & Stem) who created the far larger Grand Central Station in New York City. At the time of its opening, it was considered to be the grandest building north of San Francisco. Seattle was none too happy that the Northern Pacific Railroad chose Tacoma instead of Seattle as the western terminus of their rail line, but the railroad and Union Station ushered in decades of growth for Tacoma.
However, Amtrak moved its national rail service to Seattle in the 1970s, with the last trains leaving Union Station in June 1984. The once-glorious train station seemed destined to fall into disrepair. However, the U.S. General Services Administration leased the building and embarked on a major restoration in the 1990s. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Today, this Beaux-Arts train station serves as a federal courthouse and displays a number of glass sculptures by Chihuly. Its centerpiece is the “End of Day” chandelier hanging from the rotunda.
Union Station
Echoing the art glass theme of the nearby Bridge of Glass and Museum of Glass, this window installation is actually in Union Station. You can see it from the outside in the picture above.
Rotunda of Union Station (now the federal courthouse). Chihuly’s 20-foot “End of Day” chandelier hangs from the rotunda. Photo credit: Atlas Obscura
“The Traveler”, outside Tacoma’s Union Station
Union Station/US Federal Courthouse is located at 1717 Pacific Avenue in Tacoma.