Kansas City Front Page - Union Station

Kansas City - Union Station
30 W Pershing Rd., Ste. 850
Kansas City, MO 64108
816-460-2020

Kansas City Union Station

Science City at Union Station features Dino Lab and over 50 hands-on science activities.

Kansas City Front Page is a weekly news publication spotlighting attractions, jobs, events, business and hotels near Union Station and Crown Center in Kansas City.

Kansas City Front Page

Power & Light District

Truman Sports Complex

KC Fountains

Sprint Festival Hall in the former North Waiting Room at Union Station

Union Station Highlights Kansas City's Railroading Past

Antique period clock at entrance to Union Station

Kansas City's fully-restored, 1914 train station is home to an interactive family science center and a railroad.

Union Station encompasses 850,000 square feet and originally featured 900 rooms. In its prime as a working train station, accommodated tens of thousands of passengers every year. At its peak during WWII, an estimated one million travelers passed through the Station.

The North Waiting Room (now the Sprint Festival Plaza) could hold 10,000 people and the complex included restaurants, a cigar store, barber shop, railroad offices, the nation's largest Railway Express Building (used for shipping freight and mail) as well as a powerhouse providing steam and power.

Today, visitors can experience a massive movie in the Vic & Helen Regnier Extreme ScreenTheater, the region's only 3D projection system with a screen five stories tall. Journey through space and discover the wonders of the universe inside the Gottlieb Planetarium. At the H&R Block City Stage, guests can enjoy live shows from the Station's two resident professional theater companies - Theatre for Young America and Kansas City Actors Theatre - or from one of the many visiting companies who perform in this state-of-the-art, 200-seat performance venue.

Union Station's permanent local history exhibit, The KC Rail Experience, tells the story of how railroads shaped a city, a region and a nation. Visitors will see historic rail cars and artifacts -- tickets, bells, whistles and signs -- and hear stories from ghosts of Kansas City's railroading past.

Union Station is a historical landmark and civic asset renovated and reopened to the public in 1999. A bi-state cultural sales tax, the first of its kind in the country, funded nearly half of the $250 million renovation. The remaining money was raised through private donations and federal funding.

In November 2002, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Union Station a recipient of this year's National Preservation Honor Award. The award recognized Union Station for the achievement of beautifully restoring a Kansas City landmark and turning it once again into a viable community destination.

Full-sized replica of the Liberty Bell called The Spirit of Liberty Bell

St. Louis Antique Lighting Co. restored all of Union Station's sconces and giant chandeliers.

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