Stay & Play
Missouri Hotel Preserves Golden Age of Rail Travel
by Randy Mink
Grand it is.
The glorious, barrel-vaulted Grand Hall of the St. Louis Union Station Hotel, once the main waiting room of the world’s largest and busiest train terminal, wows anyone who enters for the first time.
Arguably St. Louis’ most magnificent public interior, the sumptuous lobby lounge is a symphony in gold leaf, marble, wood carpentry, stenciling and stained glass. Intricate mosaics, ornate plasterwork, graceful archways and green glazed terracotta bricks from Italy enhance the splendor.
Accompanied by music, nightly 3D light shows projected onto the 65-foot-high ceiling dazzle guests relaxing in armchairs and sofas or seated at the long marble bar. During my recent stay, I caught kaleidoscopic shows themed around train nostalgia and marine life (a nod to the St. Louis Aquarium, one of several attractions in the Union Station complex).
The Grand Hall is the centerpiece of the former station’s castle-like headhouse, a National Historic Landmark that stretches an entire block along Market Street. Constructed of Indiana limestone in 1894, the Romanesque-style “fortress” sports gables, red-roofed turrets and a clock tower patterned after architecture in the medieval walled city of Carcassonne, France.
Train-Themed Guest Rooms
Guest rooms pay homage to Union Station’s history with artwork depicting railroad themes. On Floors 3 and 4 in the headhouse, high-ceilinged nests in the premium Grand Hall and Clock Tower room categories are named after famous railroads or legendary trains like The Texan, Dixie Flyer and Wabash Cannonball. Vintage Pullman advertisements touting the luxury of passenger rail travel adorn the hallways.
Besides the fancier digs in the headhouse, the 539-room Curio Collection by Hilton property has modern, six-story wings surrounding a courtyard garden under the steel girders of the massive 11.5-acre train shed. Once the world’s largest roof span, the sprawling piece of real estate held 42 tracks. The courtyard’s swimming pool operates from May to October.
Union Station’s History
At its peak during World War II, Union Station handled 300 trains and 100,000 people a day. The last Amtrak train departed on October 31, 1978.
The station reopened in 1985 as a mixed-use complex with a hotel, retail shops, restaurants and event spaces. For two decades a popular spot for tourists and locals alike, the mall eventually began to lose tenants and sat empty for a number of years. Lodging Hospitality Management (LHM), the current owner of Union Station, bought the site in 2012 and began a multi-year overhaul that started in 2016.
Attractions and Restaurants
Today, St. Louis Union Station thrives as a downtown tourist magnet with attractions like the aquarium and St. Louis Wheel, an observation wheel with 42 climate-controlled gondolas. Steps from the wheel you’ll find a mini-golf course, a carousel and the Koi Pond, where vending machines dispense pellets for feeding the fish.
Facing the lake are three full-service restaurants—Landry’s Seafood, The Train Shed and St. Louis Union Station Soda Fountain, a diner renowned for its Instagram-worthy ice cream creations.
The complex’s newest eatery is The Pitch, a soccer-themed pub. It resides across the street from Citypark, home of the new St. Louis City SC soccer team.
In the hotel, the Station Grille occupies the elegant confines of the former Fred Harvey restaurant, one of the 80-some Harvey Houses that served passengers during the heyday of rail travel.
