Union Stations Across the U.S.
By Beryl Frank
Portland, Oregon
The date was February 14, 1996. The anniversary marked 106 years since the opening of the Union Station in Portland, Oregon.
In 1996, an article in Locomotive & Railway Preservation said: "Portland Union Station ranks as one of the finest, grand 19th century depots in the nation, still doing the job for which it was built."
The station was built on a site once occupied by a lake and was subject to flooding from the Willamette River. Over 5300 wood pilings were driven into the marshy ground to support the building. The architects were from the Kansas firm of Van Brunt and Howe.
The large red brick building featured a high, slender clock tower, with six tracks serving the station and a roundhouse for locomotives built nearby. The design of the station was done in the Italian Renaissance style and constructed of brick, stucco and sandstone.
The Union Depot of Portland, Oregon, was sometimes called Road of a Thousand Wonders. One of those wonders was surely the tall clock tower, taller than any other buildings around it.
Time and the railroads were very well acquainted. The railroad signal of ALL ABOARD was usually based on timekeepers from pocket watches for the conductor to the tall clock towers at the top of the depots.
Portland, Oregon, has an outside clock from its Union Depot. The tower and the clock reach to the sky.
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