{{for|the current MBTA and Amtrak station serving Providence|Providence station}} {{Use American English|date=February 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox station | name = Providence, RI | style = Amtrak |style2 = Amtrak old | image = Union_Station_Providence.jpg | image_caption = 1898 Union Station | address = | borough = Providence, Rhode Island | country = United States | coordinates = {{coord|41.8258|-71.4133|type:railwaystation_region:US-RI|display=inline,title}} | owned = Amtrak | line = Amtrak Northeast Corridor | platform = | tracks = | opened = 1847 | closed = 1986 | rebuilt = 1898 | mpassengers = | other_services_header = Former services | other_services_collapsible = yes | other_services = {{Adjacent stations |system1=Amtrak |line1=Hilltopper|left1=Kingston|right1=Route 128 |line2=Northeast Corridor|left2=Kingston|right2=Route 128 |line3=Beacon Hill|left3=East Greenwich|right3=Route 128 |system5=MBTA |line6=Providence/Stoughton|right6=Pawtucket/Central Falls|note-mid6=pre-1981 |line7=Foxboro event Providence|right7=Pawtucket/Central Falls|note-mid7=1971-73 |system8=Penn Central |line8=Westerly-Providence|left8=Warwick|note-mid8=1971-1979<ref>{{NETransit|374}}</ref> |system10=New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad |line11=Shore Line Railway (Connecticut)|left11=East Greenwich|right11=Pawtucket-Central Falls |line12=Providence and Worcester Railroad|left12=Pawtucket-Central Falls |line13=New York and New England Railroad|left13=Cranston }} | mapframe = yes | mapframe-marker-color = #{{rcr|Amtrak}} | mapframe-zoom = 14 | nrhp = {{Infobox NRHP |embed = yes | name = Union Station | nrhp_type = | area = | built = 1898 | architect = Stone, Carpenter & Willson | architecture = | added = February 20, 1975 | refnum = 75000003<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2007a}}</ref> | nrhp_type2 = cp | nocat = yes | designated_nrhp_type2 = February 10, 1984 | partof = Downtown Providence Historic District | partof_refnum = 84001967 }} }}
'''Union Station''' describes two distinct, defunct train stations in Providence, Rhode Island. Parts of the latter one were renovated and the building contains offices and restaurants.
== Union Station (1847–1887) == The original Union Station was Providence's first, opening in 1848 to accommodate the needs of the newly thriving city. This building was designed by 21 year old Rhode Island architect, Thomas Alexander Tefft in the Lombard Romanesque style. Construction of the station was supervised by Tallman & Bucklin. Extending 720 feet along the edge of Exchange Place, the structure was the largest railroad station in the United States the time of its construction.<ref>Anger, Jenny. "[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jenny_Anger/publication/316701856_The_Rise_of_the_Professional_Architect/links/590e0aa20f7e9b2863a48048/The-Rise-of-the-Professional-Architect.pdf The Rise of the Professional Architect]". ''Thomas Alexander Tefft: American Architecture in Transition, 1845-1860''. Ed. Kathleen A. Curran. Providence, RI: Brown University, 1988.</ref> The building has also been dubbed longest building in the country at the time, though this assertion is disputed.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Brussat|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JW8uDwAAQBAJ&dq=providence+station+romanesque&pg=PA100|title=Lost Providence|date=2017-08-28|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-4671-3724-9|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Heppner|first=Frank|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zXd2CQAAQBAJ&dq=providence+station+longest+building&pg=PT61|title=Railroads of Rhode Island: Shaping the Ocean State's Railways|date=2012-02-27|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-61423-363-3|language=en}}</ref>
In 1885, ''American Architect and Building News'' voted the building one of the 20 best buildings in the country.<ref name=":0" /> 20th century architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock wrote of the station, "without much question it was the finest early station in the New World."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hitchcock|first=Henry-Russell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fyUBgspcsgAC&dq=Without+question+it+was+the+finest+early+station&pg=PA138|title=Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries|date=1987|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-05320-3|language=en}}</ref>
As the city continued to grow, so too did the need for terminal space, ultimately resulting in the paving over of the remnants of the city's inland bay in 1890. The question of what to do with the now undersized station was spontaneously answered on February 21, 1896 when the building suffered a catastrophic fire that effectively gutted the structure.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Societies (U.S.)|first=Association of Engineering|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fZ4PAQAAIAAJ&dq=fire+providence+union+station+February+1896&pg=PA291|title=Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies|date=1909|language=en}}</ref><gallery> File:Map of the City of Providence, General Railroad Passenger Station.jpg|A drawing of the first Union Station in 1857, ten years after its construction File:City Hall and Union Station in 1885.jpg|City Hall and the first Union Station in 1885 File:Providence RI Exchange Place.jpg|An 1886 engraving of Exchange Place. The station is visible to the right of City Hall. File:Providence's Union Station the day after the midnight fire February 21, 1896.jpg|The building immediately following the 1896 fire. </gallery>
== Union Station (1898–1986) == A much larger Union Station was opened in 1898, clad in distinctive yellow brick, which the ''Providence Journal'' heralded as "a new era of history of this city".<ref>{{cite book |last=Woodward |first=William McKenzie |title=PPS/AIAri Guide to Providence Architecture |year=2003 |publisher=Providence Preservation Society |location=Providence, RI |isbn=0-9742847-0-X |pages=303–304 }}</ref> The station was designed by the firm of Stone, Carpenter & Willson, which had also designed other Providence buildings.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.risd.edu/charlespendleton.cfm |title=RISD : Rhode Island School of Design : MUSEUM HISTORY<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=April 13, 2007 |archive-date=May 6, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506103655/http://www.risd.edu/charlespendleton.cfm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Though rail use grew in the early twentieth century, after the 1940’s rail traffic diminished as it did elsewhere in the U.S. By the 1980s passenger rail traffic had dropped 75 percent. City planners saw the opportunity to dismantle the "Chinese Wall" of train tracks that hemmed in Providence's central business district and moved MBTA and Amtrak service to a new, smaller Providence station about a half mile north in 1986.<ref>{{cite book |last=Woodward |first=William McKenzie |title=PPS/AIAri Guide to Providence Architecture |year=2003 |publisher=Providence Preservation Society |location=Providence, RI |isbn=0-9742847-0-X |page=13 }}</ref> <gallery> File:1150 - Providence, R .I. Union Station.jpg|This c. 1910 postcard shows the second Union Station File:MAIN TERMINAL BUILDING, SOUTH ELEVATION - Providence Union Station, Exchange Terrace, Providence, Providence County, RI HABS RI,4-PROV,177-3.jpg|South elevation of the station in 1982 File:MAIN TERMINAL BUILDING WAITING ROOM, LOOKING WEST - Providence Union Station, Exchange Terrace, Providence, Providence County, RI HABS RI,4-PROV,177-8.jpg|The interior of the station in 1982 File:Providence skyline over Kennedy Plaza.jpg|View over Kennedy Plaza. The old Union Station buildings are visible in the foreground. </gallery>
== Redevelopment (1987–present) == Union Station caught fire in April 1987 amidst $11 million in renovations, forcing a change of plans.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.marselladevelopment.com/pdfs/Union%20Station%20Redevelopment%20Continues.pdf |title=Providence Journal Article |access-date=July 15, 2011 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231944/http://www.marselladevelopment.com/pdfs/Union%20Station%20Redevelopment%20Continues.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Parts of the original station have now been renovated and the building contains offices and restaurants, including the Union Station Brewery.
The center-most building of Union Station now houses the Rhode Island Foundation, which leases space to The Public's Radio, RI Kids Count,<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.rikidscount.org |title= Rhode Island KIDS COUNT > Home| access-date= 2016-04-27 }}</ref> and Women's Fund RI.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.wfri.org |title= Women's Fund of Rhode Island |access-date= 2016-04-27 }}</ref>
A $23.5-million investment to develop Rhode Island's first food hall in the station was begun in 2022 by a local developer who purchased the building from The Rhode Island Foundation.<ref name="ProJo20231108" /><ref name="foodhall-wpri">{{Cite web |last=Doiron |first=Sarah |date=2022-04-20 |title=RI's first food hall coming to Union Station |url=https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/providence/ris-first-food-hall-coming-to-union-station/ |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=WPRI-TV}}</ref> The 18,000-square-foot food hall is named "Track 15", a reference to the fact that the historic Union Station had 14 tracks.<ref name="ProJo20231108">{{cite news |last1=Ciampa |first1=Gail |title=Providence's first food hall has a name, merchants and an opening date. What to expect. |url=https://www.providencejournal.com/story/entertainment/dining/2023/11/08/providence-food-hall-includes-dune-bros-dolores-giusto-moniker/71479678007/ |access-date=8 November 2023 |publisher=The Providence Journal |date=8 November 2023 |location=Providence, RI}}</ref> It opened on March 18, 2025.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/providence/new-providence-food-hall-holding-grand-opening/ |title=New Providence food hall holds grand opening |first1=Leah |last1=Crowley |first2=Kristin |last2=Burnell |date=March 18, 2025 |newspaper=WPRI |access-date=March 18, 2025}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Union Station (Providence, Rhode Island)}} *[https://artinruins.com/property/union-station/ Union Station] | Art In Ruins *{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826120757/http://www.rifoundation.org/AboutUs/OurHistoryandMission/OneUnionStationhistory/tabid/501/Default.aspx |date=August 26, 2013 |title=One Union Station History}} *{{HABS |survey=RI-388 |id=ri0377 |title=Providence Union Station, Exchange Terrace, Providence, Providence County, RI |photos=23 |data=4 |cap=1}} *{{HAER |survey=RI-23 |id=ri0376 |title=Promenade Street Interlocking Tower, Promenade Street between Union Station & East Side Tunnel Viaduct |photos=6 |data=3 |cap=1}}
{{Amtrak Rhode Island stations}} {{NRHP in Providence, Rhode Island|state=collapsed}}
Category:Railway stations in the United States opened in 1898 Category:Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island Category:Former Amtrak stations in Rhode Island Providence Category:Former railway stations in Rhode Island Category:Transportation in Providence, Rhode Island Category:Historic American Buildings Survey in Rhode Island Category:National Register of Historic Places in Providence, Rhode Island Category:Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Rhode Island Category:Historic district contributing properties in Providence County, Rhode Island Category:Transportation buildings and structures in Providence County, Rhode Island Category:Former Old Colony Railroad stations Category:1898 establishments in Rhode Island