calherewecome

On Saturday, Paula and I did a tour of the Los Angeles Union Station in downtown LA. The trip was sponsored by the nice folks at the San Pedro Historical Society. The actual tour was done by volunteer docents from the LA Conservancy. We had a total of about 36 people that was split into three groups to do the tour. There are so many clocks through out the building to keep you aware of the time.
 
 Here is the view of the main entrance.
 

The station has two gardens on either side of the station. I was first struck by the awesome view of the towering palm trees. There are many roses, greenery and fountains. Here are a few more pictures.
 

The architecture is a combination of Art-Deco, Moderne, and Mission Revival. Our docent described it as “Pueblo Deco” architecture. When you arrive at the station you walk through a long tunnel with ceilings about 9.5 ft high. Then you reach the main terminal you are treated with site of arched ceilings with beautiful chandeliers.
 

The main waiting area has these beautifully restored cushioned seats. At one time they were made of leather. The leather has since been replaced by vinyl. They are very comfortable. You don’t see seats like this at a modern airport.
 

 We visited what was once the main restaurant at the station. The restaurant was run by Fred Harvey. Fred Harvey was an entrepreneur who had developed many restaurants for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. These were among first instances of chain restaurants across the USA. Currently the restaurant has no fixtures, but you can imagine the grandeur that was once there. Notice the marble floors and the wrap-around bar. We were told that the area is available for rental for special functions (weddings, galas and such).
 
 While we’re on the subject of the ATSF railroad, I found an interesting fact. The ATSF railroad never made it to Santa Fe. Apparently the terrain was too difficult. The ATSF railroad was of course made famous by the song of the same name. The song was made famous in the movie “The Harvey Girls“. Here is a You Tube link to Judy Garland singing “On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe” on her TV show.
 

One more thing. We told the docent that we would like to see some trains. This being a train station afterall. So here are a couple of pictures of some of the trains.
 

 Be sure to follow the many hyper-links through out this post. There is so much to learn about this fascinating place.
 
 TTFN,
 
 Joe
 
 – Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Los Angeles, CA

This entry was posted on March 30, 2014 at 6:58 pm and is filed under California, Los Angeles, Travel. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Architecture, Trains, Union Pacific