Union Pacific Depot in Salt Lake City, Utah
Proposed at the beginning of the twentieth century, and completed in 1909, the Union Depot served for years as a main railroad depot in the downtown area of Salt Lake City.
Completed in July 1909, the Union Depot in downtown Salt Lake City, served as a connecting point for the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad to the Oregon Short Line. Previous to the construction of the depot and connecting railroads, passengers had to travel to Sacramento and then take a train to southern California. By providing a train that went straight to southern California, passenger trips became considerable shorter and more convenient.
Initially proposed around the turn of the twentieth century, the Union Deport connected and unified all the major railroads in the area. Demolition of pre-existing buildings on the site occurred in 1904 and construction of the new station begin. Architects envisioned the new station on a grander scale than the Union Station in Denver, Colorado, which had just been completed a few years prior.
Construction on the Union Depot officially began in 1908, with a proposed cost of $500,000. At this same time, the Rio Grande Railroad announced that they were building their own depot, also in downtown Salt Lake City. With this second depot being built, the idea of having one unified station in downtown Salt Lake that connected all the railways was destroyed.
The Union Depot, or Union Pacific Depot as it became known in 1921, functioned as a railroad station into the 1970s and for a short time as an Amtrak station. In 1989, however, the Union Pacific donated the building to the state of Utah. In 1999, the Boyer Company, who had already bought the land surrounding the depot, bought the Union Pacific Depot building from the state of Utah. Since that time the depot has housed various stores and been used as an event center.
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