Cincinnati Union Terminal - Those Were the Days.

it's unlike any other railroad station in the world these are the [Music] days people here in Cincinnati don't even realize what a treasure we have [Music] all Cincinnati had five widely dispersed stations downtown none of which were great and several of which flooded [Music] [Applause] annually we were known as having some of the worst rail facilities in the country so that's what led to this building they pulled down Bald Knob up here on the hill built a railroad and brought 7700 gond loads of dirt down here to fill this in up to Freeman [Music] Avenue venal rice created the largest collection of non-religious murals ever in one place [Music] instead of putting tile on the Dome and so on they painted it and that gave it this outlandish what I call Yahoo Art Deco appearance that you just don't find in any other station the um Union Terminal was scheduled for dedication on the 31st of March but actually the first train came into the terminal on the 19th of March due to flooding of some of the earlier [Music] stations you could do anything here they had a bookstore a woman's clothing store a men's clothing store a drug store a news re theater a toy store which was my favorite place as a did it was almost a little city in it of South this is where we got off the trains when we came from the south when the first came came into the City and we settle in the area close to the railroad so this is our identity this is where we [Music] settle it was also a place where we earned money we made our own portable shoe shine boxes and we shine shoes there we made money parking cars for the people who went to rosby field we tell them watch your car you get back make sure everything's okay it's just a place my aunt used to take me a lot she lived on a little street called hopping Street which is right around the corner from it you know and so we could just go over there and go to the [Music] restaurants when I got somewhere between 20 and 21 I actually became a bus boy at Gateway Restaurant and then I became a waiter now become a waiter is where you make a lot more [Music] money for thousands of of the lowincome people both black and white that were very important element in their life and it made it much richer December 7th 1941 a date which will live in infamy [Music] I graduated from Western Hills a week later I was leaving this terminal go to boot camp in North Fork Virginia I ended up in the South Pacific for about 3 [Music] years this place was full of army people and people greeting them and of course the happiness when they come home for un furo and then the sadness when they left and who knew if they were going to ever get back many a night I slept on a couch waiting for the servicemen to be placed we thought the war was never going to [Music] end came home in 1945 the war had been over about 4 months then and I came into this terminal about a week before Christmas after being gone all that time [Music] in all the places I went all over the South Pacific you'd run into all these GIS Marines infantry Air Force where you from and I'd say Cincinnati OH I've been to your town you got a beautiful Railroad Station there that's the only thing they knew about it because they came through here and rout to wherever they were [Music] going when Eisenhower started building all of the interstates and you could buy a new Chevrolet for $1600 the railroad didn't want passenger business anymore they just wanted Freight the crowds we used to incur were no longer [Music] here there was plenty of talk of doing other things with it including tearing it [Music] down by 72 it was [Music] gone they built her back in 33 when a vertical lift off airport as well as a train station a Jail Museum there was one rendition in the inquire that showed the football stadium out here where the fountain is this was sort of a convention Cent [Music] and without railro never be the sa the sa yourself a friend the Mind children can still see [Music] that shopping mall was a failure there was a poster that I'll never forget and it showed the facade of the terminal major parts of which were missing and it was just kind of like a ruin type of representation and all it said on the poster was when it's gone it's gone I was so thrilled when all this came about I don't think there was anybody [Music] happier when the Museum Center decided to find a new place to settle in together with the Natural History Museum they were LED right here to this place the citizens of this city raised $32 million in property taxes and I I participated in getting $88 million from the state of Ohio I never dreamed that when I was shining shoes that I'd be getting $8 million for the Union Terminal I enjoyed so [Music] much it's a wonderful place to spend a day you can easily spend an entire day at a museum many museums your children most of the time don't even realize you're learning while they're [Music] there [Music] w

Channel: Douglass McDonald

Views: 115,284

Keywords: Cincinnati, Union Terminal, Springer, Trains, Museum, Museum Center railroad ohio

Id: akUKZAxWSsQ

Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 01 2011