1301 Western Avenue (Queensgate)

• National Historic Landmark – Listed May 5, 1977
• National Register of Historic Places – Listed October 31, 1972 (No. 72001018)

Significance: Cincinnati Union Terminal is one of the last remaining grand-scale Art Deco style railroad terminals, and it is a planning masterwork of Paul Phillipe Cret and the architectural firm of Alfred Fellheimer and Stewart Wagner. Massive glass mosaic murals, designed by German-born artist Winold Reiss and considered to be outstanding examples of Art Deco in their own right, adorn the terminal walls.

Constructed between 1929 and 1933, the Cincinnati Union Terminal was designed to centralize the freight and passenger operations of the Big Four (later the New York Central), Pennsylvania, Chesapeake & Ohio, Norfolk & Western, Southern, Louisville & Nashville, and the Baltimore & Ohio railroads. At the peak of its rail traffic, the terminal accommodated 17,000 people and 216 trains daily. By 1972, however, train service had halted completely. In the following years the building stood largely vacant before being restored and reopened in 1990 as the Cincinnati Museum Center, an educational and cultural complex including two museums, an OMNIMAX theater, and the Cincinnati Historical Society. Train service was restored to the terminal in 1991. Further information about the Museum Center and Union Terminal can be found at   www.cincymuseum.org.

Fourteen of the mosaic murals originally located in the concourse were removed from the building in the 1970s and reinstalled at the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Airport. Detailed information about how these fragile works of art were saved and moved can be found at www.cvgairport.com.