US Postal Service celebrates train travel with stamps – Newsroom

CINCINNATI – Train stations have long been the gateway to pleasure rides, business trips and even postal transportation across our land at one time. The Postal Service celebrates the history, nostalgia and love of rail travel with its Stations of the Year stamps.

An inauguration ceremony was held for the stamps on the wonderful art deco Cincinnati Union Terminal Today. News of the stamps is being shared with the hashtag. # Railway station stamps.

Dan Tangerlini, member of the USPS Board of Governors, said, “We are fortunate to have this amazing and inspiring building, the Cincinnati Union Terminal, as one of five amazing train stations featured in our stamp series today. , who served as the authority that gave it. “This railway station and the others on these stamps tell a fascinating and significant story about how these buildings have been preserved, repurposed and reused. All five stations have stories of endurance and subplots involving the dedicated people working to save them.”

In the mid-1820s, railroad transportation was a viable idea and America was still in its infancy. In the decades that followed, new railroad companies raced across the continent to create prosperity and forget the past. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, railroads were the only practical way to travel any significant distance; Almost everyone boarded the train.

The first station buildings were raised in the early 1830s. A station is often designed to convey the importance of the local community and the power and prestige of the railway company it serves. In many small towns the railway station was the focal point of community life.

Interesting stations began to light up the American landscape in the 1870s, and although many fell to the wrecking ball after outliving their original purpose, hundreds survived. These new stamps feature five architectural gems that play an important role in their communities.

It is often due to the persistence of historic carers that our great railway stations survive. All five featured on these stamps are listed on the US Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places.

Five railway stations that helped connect the country

The amazing art deco Union Terminal It opened in Cincinnati in early 1933 during the Great Depression. By 1900, the city of Ohio had become a center of industry and commerce as well as the nation’s 10th largest city and a major gateway and transfer point for most railroad passengers. Midwest and South. The New York architectural team of Alfred T. Fellheimer and Steward Wagner envisioned a design that reflected the prosperity and optimism of the 1920s: a massive half-dome rising from a large elevated plaza with interior mosaics celebrating the city’s important industries. However, shortly after construction began in August 1929, Wall Street crashed. Union Terminal is one of the last great train stations built during the railroad era.

The station was designed for 216 trains per day.

“It is an incredible honor for the historic Union Terminal to be immortalized on a US postage stamp. Elizabeth Pierce, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Museum Center at historic Union Terminal, says its history and architecture make it a National Historic Landmark, but its place in people’s lives makes it iconic. “The Union Terminal has been an integral part of our community’s memories for nine decades and with the release of these commemorative stamps we will introduce the public to our local treasure.”

Pennsylvania Tamaqua Station, Built by the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, it opened in 1874, replacing a wood-frame depot that burned down. Thanks to the first railroad that reached Tamaqua in 1831, the city emerged as an anthracite coal center and a regional center. The Italian aesthetic of the new site emphasizes this. Residents and visitors alike enjoyed the on-site restaurant, along with the garden and fountain in Depot Square Park in front of the building.

In 1920, Tamaqua became an anthracite center. Its resources declined as other forms of fuel reduced the use of anthracite coal. The park was closed in 1950 and the land was redeveloped. After the railroad began discontinuing passenger train service to Tamaqua, it was completed in 1963 and converted to administrative use before closing in 1980. After a fire the following year, a historic preservation group purchased the building and successfully campaigned to save it. 1992 and Restored in 2004. A recreated Depot Square Park was dedicated that same year. The station contains a heritage centre, shops and a restaurant, and the Reading and Northern Railway now runs an occasional tourist train to Tamaqua.

Gothic Revival Rocks station pointIt stands at a crossroads in rural but suburban Frederick County, MD. It was built at the point where the Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from Washington, D.C. split from the original main line between Baltimore and the Midwest.

In the year Founded in 1827 as the nation’s first long-distance freight and passenger railroad, the B&O reached Point of Rocks in 1832. Forty-one years later, the company opened a metropolitan branch. Baltimore architect E. Francis Baldwin was hired to design the new headquarters building in Baltimore, as well as Rocks Station, completed in 1875, and several other famous stations.

The Metropolitan Branch eventually became the B&O’s main line for passenger and freight trains to Baltimore, Washington and other points. When the Rocks Station building closed in 1962, trains stopped there to pick up and drop off passengers.

In the year In 1971, Congress merged 20 long-distance passenger lines into the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, or Amtrak. It became the only passenger stop served by the B&O until the Maryland Area Regional Passenger (MARC) Railroad took over and expanded service in the mid-1980s. The station building now houses the offices of CSX Transportation, the successor to B&O Freight Services.

Main road station, in Richmond, VA, is reminiscent of a French chateau, but surrounded by railroad tracks and highways. The two railroads that once served the city—the East-West Chesapeake & Ohio and the North-South Seaboard Railroad—opened in 1901 in a bustling business district on the edge of downtown. The Philadelphia firm of Wilson, Harris & Richards, specialists in railroad architecture, chose the Second Renaissance Revival style for the magnificent building, giving it a steep roof and a six-story clock tower.

In the year In the 1950s, the construction of an elevated interstate highway, almost touching the site, clearly marked the height of the automobile. However, both the train and the station survived. Amtrak took over passenger service in 1971 before moving to a new suburban depot four years later. Main Street Station subsequently underwent a brief major renovation and revitalization in the 1980s, as a shopping mall and then office space. Amtrak returned in 2003 and now shares the building with a visitor center and large event space, which received another major makeover in 2017.

When Santa Fe Depot It opened in 1918 in San Bernardino, CA, and became known as the largest railroad station west of the Mississippi River. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad reached San Bernardino in 1886 and built a wood frame station. In the year After a fire destroyed the structure in 1916, company architect W. Moore designed a successor in the Mission Revival style and added Moorish elements.

During the 1950s, the San Bernardino warehouse served as an important gateway for thousands of Americans immigrating to California, particularly from the Midwest and Southern states. It served as an employment center for most of the local population who worked in jobs related to the railways.

The Santa Fe Railroad turned its passenger service over to Amtrak in 1972. Two decades later, the Associated States of San Bernardino purchased the old station and added Metrolink commuter rail service. In the year After extensive renovations were completed in the early 2000s, the San Bernardino Depot now houses local government offices as well as a history and railroad museum.

Just as the railroad represents growth and movement, so train stations carry stories: of industry and commerce, of migration and hope for the future, of reunions and farewells. Life is a gateway, and a crossroads. The Postal Service is proud to honor these five historic American railroad stations.

USPS Art Director Derry Noyes was the art director for the project. Down the Street Designs was responsible for the digital illustrations, graphics and overall design of the piece.

Railway Stations Forever stamps are issued in panels of 20.

Postal products

Customers can buy stamps and other philatelic products in Postal store as if usps.com/shopstampsBy mail by calling 844-737-7826 USA Philitic or at post office locations nationwide.

###