A look into the past.

Cincinnati's magnificent art deco-style Union Terminal building may be home to Cincinnati Museum Center now, but when it was first dedicated on March 31,1933, it was meant to be the solution to the city’s chaotic railroad system. The construction of Union Terminal was a cooperative project. It centralized 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.

During World War II, Cincinnati Union Terminal experienced unprecedented usage. As a major transfer point for soldiers, the station served as many as 34,000 passengers per day! But in the 1950s, the sudden expansion of interstates and airlines led to the rapid decline of the railroad industry. By the early 1970s, only two trains a day passed through Union Terminal and in 1972, train service was halted completely.

In 1975, the City of Cincinnati bought the terminal and ran advertisements in the Wall Street Journal, which read, "World-famous Cincinnati Union Terminal for lease—$1 per year." What a steal! After a failed effort to operate the terminal as a shopping center in 1980, another idea was presented. The administrators of the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and the Cincinnati Historical Society developed plans for a joint museum project. The size of Union Terminal, coupled with its history and design, made it the top choice as a location for the project. Substantial support from state and local government, combined with one of the city's most successful capital campaigns ever undertaken by a Cincinnati cultural organization, allowed their vision to be realized.

In November of 1990, Cincinnati Union Terminal reopened as Cincinnati Museum Center. On July 29, 1991, train service was officially restored to the terminal. The success of the Union Terminal renovation made it possible for Amtrak to schedule a Cincinnati stop on its Chicago-bound route from Washington, D.C. Eight years later, the Duke Energy Children’s Museum opened in 1998.