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Union Depot (Chattanooga)

The Union Depot, constructed between 1857-1859, served as a train car shed in Chattanooga, TN. It stood at Broad Street and Ninth Street, which is now Martin Luther King Blvd. The depot joined the Western & Atlantic, Nashville & Chattanooga, Memphis & Charleston, and East Tennessee & Georgia railroads. Modifications were added in 1868 and 1881 to include offices and waiting rooms. The train car shed was in use during and after the Civil War. After failed efforts to preserve the structure, the Union Depot was torn down in 1972.'''[Prince, Richard E. The Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railway: History and Steam Locomotives. Indiana University Press, 1967.]'''

The Union Depot was made of limestone and brick, and the bricks used were made by slaves. The center line of the train car shed was the boundary line between the Western & Atlantic Railway and the Nashville & Chattanooga Railway.'''[Prince, Richard E. The Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railway: History and Steam Locomotives. Indiana University Press, 1967.]''' During the Civil War, the train car shed was used as an army hospital. A head house was added to the Union Depot in 1882, and the south end was demolished and replaced with butterfly sheds in 1926. [Steve Storey, “Chattanooga, TN, Stations,” accessed August 23, 2015, http://railga.com/Depots/chattanooga.html.]  In 1900, Georgian marble floors were added to the building, which was appropriate because Georgia owned the land that the Union Depot stood on. [Harmon Jolley, “Visionary Plan in 1971 to Save Union Station,” http://www.chattanoogan.com/2005/5/29/67598/Visionary-Plan-in-1971-to-Save-Union.aspx.] 

There was disagreement over the ownership of the Union Depot. Georgia's argument that the Western & Atlantic Railway and the Nashville & Chattanooga Railway were the rightful owners was upheld by courts. Debate over ownership of the Union Depot resulted in the organization of the Chattanooga Station Company in 1905. The company was formed by the three lines of the Southern Railway System and the Central of Georgia Railway.'''[Prince, Richard E. The Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railway: History and Steam Locomotives. Indiana University Press, 1967.]'''

In 1971, an English class from UTC taught by Dr. Tom Preston, proposed a visionary plan to save the Union Depot from demolition. The plan proposed the restoration and utilization of the Union Depot as the center of a midtown mall. The class presented a paper and a video of the inside of the Union Depot to the Chattanooga City Commission on July 19, 1971. Mayor Robert Kirk Walker recommended that the students take their presentation to the Downtown Development Committee. The Chattanooga Area Historical Association joined the fight to save the Union Depot in November of 1971. However, on September 26, 1971, Georgia decided to sell some of the land it owned, including the site of the Union Depot. [Harmon Jolley, “Visionary Plan in 1971 to Save Union Station,” http://www.chattanoogan.com/2005/5/29/67598/Visionary-Plan-in-1971-to-Save-Union.aspx.]  The structure was torn down the following year, and the site currently houses office buildings in downtown Chattanooga. A historical marker was placed at the location of the Union Depot and stands there today.[The Union Depot, 2B 25, Tennessee Historical Commission, Chattanooga, TN.]