Friday, February 4, 2011

Union Station: The Allegory Window

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Union Station Great Hall 2 - Allegory Window

Back to the great hall of Union Station and one of its most beautiful features, the stained glass window displaying an allegory of the American railroads. On the left is San Francisco, in the center St. Louis and on the right New York, the major rail terminals of the day. It's nice to think that there was a time when our city could claim this position without pretense. I think we were once the fourth largest city in the country, after New York, Philadelphia and, I forget, Boston or Chicago. No more (although note that these figures are for the city proper, not metropolitan area. We do quite a lot better by that measure.)

Track Nine And Three-Quarters If you believe in magic, stop by Downtown St. Louis 365 today.

Union Station Great Hall 3 - Allegory Window

7 comments:

cieldequimper said...

Lovely, very Tiffanyish.

Ed Pitts said...

STL is the 18th largest MSA according to the latest census. Poor Syracuse where I now reside is 81st. What do such nmbers say?

Carraol said...

Extraordinary pieces of art, the architecture of the station is splendid!

Virginia said...

I agree with Ciel. Very "Tiffanyish"! What a beautiful place. I hope I get there one day and have you show me around.
V

The Blackwood Cottage said...

Catching my eye as always. Beautiful.
machelle

Anonymous said...

The window IS a Tiffany Studios original and worth plenty.

Anonymous said...

The window was NOT produced by Tiffany, though very much in the style. It was produced by the Davis and Chambers Company of St. Louis. There has been much speculation about the artist and few people know that the window is signed by John C. Other (my great uncle). I wish he would get due credit.

Rob from St. Louis