{"nrhp_refnum":"75001970","name":"El Paso Union Passenger Station","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SW corner of Coldwell at San Francisco St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"El Paso","county":"El Paso County","state":"TX","lat":31.757216362000065,"lon":-106.49626115199999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-04-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Neo-Classical railroad station at the southwest corner of Coldwell and San Francisco Streets in downtown El Paso, Texas, built in 1905 and designed by Daniel H. Burnham & Company of Chicago.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the station as a landmark of El Paso's role as a transportation center. It was built as the first union station in the United States designed expressly to handle international traffic. It also represents the work of the influential Burnham firm.","narrative":"El Paso's Union Passenger Station sits at the southwest corner of Coldwell and San Francisco Streets in downtown El Paso. Chicago's Daniel H. Burnham & Company designed it, and Buchanan and Powers began construction in 1904. It was completed in November 1905 and opened on March 1, 1906. The two-story brick building has seven bays on its east front, a columned portico, and a six-story bell tower. A large waiting room with a clerestory and a gallery lies at its center. A Romanesque Harvey House restaurant wing extends from the rear. The station was built for the Southern Pacific, Texas & Pacific, Santa Fe and Nacionales de Mexico railroads, and is described as the first union station in the country designed expressly for international traffic. A 1941 remodeling painted the brick white and replaced the tower's spire with a tiled roof. By 1974 the station was no longer run by the Depot Company, and deteriorating conditions put its future in question.","period_of_significance":"1900-1999 (specific date 1905)","architect_builder":"Daniel H. Burnham (Daniel H. Burnham & Company, Chicago); Buchanan and Powers, general contractors","architectural_style":"Neo-Classical (Neo-Classical Revival), with Spanish Colonial Revival motifs added in 1941","criteria":[],"status_note":"Rail operations by the Depot Company ceased in February 1974 and abandonment was filed that May; Amtrak took over operations. High maintenance costs, falling plaster and plumbing leaks threatened the building, and adaptive reuse plans were pending.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:18.752043-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/87/9718/40971887/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/75001970.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001970/4847d02842-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001970/4847d02842-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Bonita de Boer","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:El_Paso_station.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Bonita de Boer</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:El_Paso_station.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971887","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Depot_(El_Paso)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7885653"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/el-paso-county/el-paso-union-passenger-station-75001970/"}