Architectural details and coloring of the Union Station's great window, the 90-foot ceiling with ornamental plaster and the station entrance make this attractive Phostint postal card almost a work of art. Colors are softly muted browns, grays, yellows, blues and pinks. The card was published by the Detroit Publishing Company for Fred Harvey, early restaurateur and gift shop owner at the station. It was one of a set of 10 of the station, published around the time of the station's opening in 1914. The legend on the reverse side of the card reads: All the comforts and conveniences required by the traveler are located in the main building of the New Union Station in Kansas City, centering in a large space known as the Grand Lobby, from which the passengers have access to the waiting rooms. Adjoining the Grand Lobby are other waiting rooms for women, a smoking room for men, restaurants, telegraph office, drug store, book store and news stand. The room has an area of 22,000 square feet...A circular pavilion made up of booths for sale of railway and sleeping car tickets is a central feature of the Grand Lobby. Marilynn Garst Mayor of Overland Park, found the card in an old trunk. Kansas City Star, June 15, 1990.
Reproduction (printing, downloading, or copying) of images from Kansas City Public Library requires permission and payment for the following uses, whether digital or print: publication; reproduction of multiple copies; personal, non-educational purposes; and advertising or commercial purposes. Please order prints or digital files and pay use fees through this website. All images must be properly credited to: "Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri." Images and texts may be reproduced without prior permission only for purposes of temporary, private study, scholarship, or research. Those using these images and texts assume all responsibility for questions of copyright and privacy that may arise.
