This late photo of the old Cleveland Union Depot shows how small the office and ticketing concourse of the 1865 structure was.
Abraham Lincoln passed through the previous station on his way to Washington in 1861. That all wood structure burned down and the new one built of sandstone played host to his funeral train 4 years later while still under construction.
For those interested, tonight on Turner Classic Movies they’re showing Silver Streak at 7:00 p.m. Central Time. If you haven’t seen it, it’s one of the fun train movies!
Cleveland’s Midland Building, just across Prospect Avenue from the Terminal Tower; home of the Erie Railroad from 1929 until 1960. then home of the Erie Lackawanna Railway from 1960 until 1976.
I’d have to agree. I didn’t realize so much of the building was devoted to parking? See the cutaway here:
CUT_from Canal Rd by Edmund, on Flickr
Cle_PC copy 2 by Edmund, on Flickr
My dentist’s office was in there ‘back in the day’.
Cheers, Ed
Not the home of a railroad corporate office but rather the home of all railroaders was the Engineer’s Building in Cleveland, Ohio and it’s twin, the Standard Building across the street that housed the Union’s bank.
The Standard Bank Building is now luxury apartments.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is still in greater Cleveland but their current home is considerably smaller.
I am soooo tired of reading about Cleveland. As Sam Wyche once remarked, referring to civility, “You don’t live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati”!
So, I present to you the Santa Fe office building headquarters in downtown Chicago.
I thought we might be getting a bit too full of ourselves this morning!
The Santa Fe building is deluxe! What a fine old landmark!
Thank you, NKP_guy for your acknowledgement of exquisite architecture.
Rich
That’s not to say that Cleveland doesn’t have any beautiful buildings. There is one, the NKP office building.
It’s not our fault Cleveland had more railroad influence than practically any other city 
More than Chicago? 
I forgot the correct name for the “Santa Fe Building” is actually the Railway Exchange Building, D.H. Burnham, chief architect. Indeed, this building is architecturally significant for a number of reasons, not least that it’s a prime example of the Chicago School of Architecture, characterized by a sophisticated arrangement of windows, among other things. I’ll go so far as to say this building is a national architectural landmark. Even the fabled Terminal Tower can’t claim that, because it came at the tail end of a design epoch, not at the beginning of one, where its influence could be felt.
I think it’s interesting to note that another famous Chicago architectural firm, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, designed Cleveland’s Union Terminal and Tower, as well as Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. They designed well, too–at both Cleveland and Philadelphia the original bronze doors at the entrances are still functioning hundreds of times daily and looking good, certainly not 95 years old!.
Correct. 
Hey! Michiganders! Let’s see some love for that newly restored tower in Detroit!
Read my mind Becky!
A BIG shout out to Ford Motor Company for saving this treasure. They work they put into restoring it is incredible. Some before and after shots by Stephen McGee via wxyz.com.
The video is very informative. Great history of the station.
Speaking of railroads’ corporate headquarters, the Chicago & North Western Railway Office in downtown Chicago.
Here is an interesting history of the CNW headquarters building:
Good morning, diners. I’ll have bacon, eggs, and coffee, please.
It’s a busy day scheduled, so I haven’t had a chance to read much of the forum. I should be home this evening and catch up with everyone.
Driving home yesterday, in a twenty-mile stretch of I-80 to our house, we counted five semis and five cars wrecked and off the road. It seems that driving 80 mph on icy snowy roads is not a good idea. Even at that, as we passed those wrecks, some drivers, including trucks, were still driving fast and weaving in and out.
This old building in Omaha is called the Burlington Headquarters Building. The Burlington and Missouri Railroad (B&M) was eventually acquired by the CB&Q. It was built in 1879 and still stands today.
Heading out the door! Have a good day!
Not every railroad was headquartered in Cleveland–or Chicago, for that matter. 
One of the greatest was the Southern Pacific Company in San Francisco. An argument can be made that the SP built California, and the power and wealth the railroad and “its” state created largely funneled into the City by the Golden Gate.
In Frank Norris’ book, “The Octopus,” the author mentions the dread felt by businessmen who were summoned to the SP’s offices to have their freight rates set; they were instructed to bring their company’s books with them:
“The Railroad … had done away with competition; it merely tolerated all other enterprises. It owned the state; it owned the courts; it owned the legislators. The very air of the Railroad Offices was one of supreme indifference, a contemptuous tolerance of the entire mechanism of the State, and a placid insolence that no rebuff, no exposure, could abash. To that office the men of affairs, prosperous, solvent, independent, came hat in hand, and with the vague premonition of disaster at the very mention of the address.”
First major home office, across the street from the depot at Third & Townsend:
From 1907 until 1917 the SP was located in the Flood Building at the corner or Powell & Market Streets:
Then, in 1917 they moved into their own building (again) at the foot of California Street:
(note the cigar store name on the left)
A great American railroad, for sure
Good morning from the OC/4c West Coast.
Slept just over four hours last night, I usually get around 5 hours but I am good to go, feelin great. It was pouring rain yesterday and we banged off 9.06kms over some pretty rough terrain. It was dark when I got home, I hopped in the shower and when I got out my perfect wife had a glass of wine sitting on the table for me.
My wife was doing an ultrasound on one of our dogs yesterday. I was holding the dog on the couch for the procedure. As usual and as expected when the wife finished she told me to lay down and gave me a once over as well. 
She said, no gallstones, no fat on your liver and a few other things looked in tip top shape for the old geezer that I am.
I am really enjoying seeing the corporate offices of the various RRs, I am glad it was suggested as a topic.
My daughter has been home a lot in the last few weeks as she has been told to use up her sick time. They won’t pay her out for it. When I worked way back when you had better well been really sick if you were not at work, or else! I rarely missed any work ever but got to retire early using up my 400plus unused sick days and got paid out for 140 unused vacation days. I would take lots of time off and travel but I used banked overtime instead of vacation days.
Canadian Pacific’s head office is in Calgary. Apparently they are currently moving into a new one at Ogden Yard.
Think I’ll mosey into the train room, who knows when I’ll come out. 
All the best to all.
