Union Depot
The Union Station, S. Water Street, (1887-1960)
The Union Station was built by the Union Depot Street Railway and Transfer Company in 1887. When built, it was the finest railway depot in Minnesota. The company rented the depot to all three railroads; The St. Paul & Duluth, The Omaha, and The Milwaukee Roads. The depot cost $50,000 when it was built. The building was closed in 1954 and razed in 1960, to make way for Hooley’s Supermarket. L.W. Eldred was the builder. It was said that the building was shipped from the east and was marked and put together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The architects were Edward Burling and Francis Whitehouse of Chicago, Illinois in 1887.
Today, this location is the home of the newly completed (2020) addition to the Water Street Inn, which shows a likeness to the tower of the old Union Depot and sits on the original exact footprint.
This is a “Time Tunnel” trip that takes you from 2019 to 1885 at the same location. It shows the Water Street Inn under construction to bring back memories of the Union Depot.
The above slide carousel shows photos of the Union Station from the late 1880’s to the 1960’s when the building was razed to make way for a new supermarket.
The above copy is from the Sanborn Fire Map of 1891 showing the location of the Union Station and The St. Paul & Duluth Railroad Depot. The map is from the Library of Congress Map Collection of Stillwater.
This is a combination of a historical Runk photo and Dick Marlow’s morphing of this image so that you can see where things were in 1894. To the left is the Union Depot and the debris from the spring storm of 1894. To the right you can see the Lucky gas station and the McKusick Building. This allows you to go from 1894 to 2019 at the same location. Historical photos are from the John Runk Collection, courtesy of The Stillwater Public Library. The blending effect was done by Dick Marlow.
