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Memphis celebrates 100 years of history, change at Central Station
With the police station located in the building, there are a large number of police cars in the parking lot. One evening we were pulling into the station northbound. A woman, seeing all the parked squad cars, was heard to say the following:
“Is the neighborhood really THAT bad?!”
Memphis Union Station would have been more worthy of a centennial celebration with its Beaux-Arts architecture and elaborate floor plan. Opened in Spring 1912, MUS would have been 112 years old in 2014.
Frisco and Rock Island would have both done well to use Union Station where locomotives were serviced.
CORRECTION: Memphis Union Station would have been 102 years old in 2014.
Too bad Tennessee doesn;t have the gumption of being very active for more train service. It took long enough just to get the Music City Star started up. Memphis deserves more train service, and the would like to see the Carbondale trains extended there.
I grew up in Memphis and have fond memories of Central Station. I rode the train from there to Atlanta several times in the late 1950s and early 1960s when I was a student at Georgia Tech. The Frisco took it to Birmingham, where it changed to Southern power for the second leg. I am happy the building has been saved, refurbished, put to good use, and that at least a couple of trains still pass through each day.