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Louisville Art Deco - Cincinnati, Ohio Union Station![]() |
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Last Updated:    March 8, 2009      Added links to the moved Winold Reiss murals.
Date Constructed: 1933
My wife and I visited here in November 2006. It's currently used as a museum. We were fortunate to be around for the free tour, which took us behind the scenes, including: the small theater, up above the lobby (behind the large bank of windows making up the front of the building), the narrow hallway behind the murals, the current Amtrak office, and into the old terminal's President's office and boardroom. The large bas-relief scupltures on the exterior are by Maxfield Keck and symbolize Commerce and Transportation. Buses and taxis used to be able to enter the building from the sides to pick up and drop off passengers. The murals are huge, beautiful mosaics showing the development of America (south wall - on the left as you enter) and Cincinnati (north wall on the right as you enter). They are made of mosaic tiles and painted stucco and were designed by Winold Reiss. Each mural is 105-feet long and more than 20-feet high. The Rotunda interior dome spans 180 feet, with a clear height of 106 feet. Originally, Reiss designed 14 mosaic panels for the concourse area depicting some of Cincinnati’s specific industries like Baldwin Piano, Procter & Gamble and U.S. Playing Cards. Those mosaics were moved to the Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati International Airport in the 1970s before Union Terminal's concourse was destroyed. These murals can still be seen today at the airport’s Terminals One, Two and Three. (source: http://www.cincymuseum.org/explore_our_sites/union_terminal/mosaics/)..
See also: Photos by Jim L. Patterson - copyright 2006.
Click on the thumbnail photo to view a larger image.
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