UNION STATION at Texarkana, Arkansas

I've always found Texarkana Arkansas/Texas (the City straddles the state line) an intriguing place -- one of those kinds of Southern Cities that once was much more than it currently is, but still retains lots of the older "character" here and there, complete with local efforts (of whatever degree) to continue to attempt to protect and keep what they've got. I drove down there recently for a service call that I knew was going to be brief, and being an otherwise lovely sunny afternoon I took the time to wander around a few downtown blocks with the phonecam out, mostly around the building seen here.

UNION STATION is/was a grand place at one time no doubt, now existing as a dilapidated shadow of its former self albeit an intact and not completely ignored one. Perhaps not ever as spectacular as a truly large city Station of the day, Texarkana was and remains on the mainline (now) Union Pacific Route -- once making it a much more major transportation center for both passengers and freight, in the eras before interstate highways and semi-trucks came along. One way or the other, it was a pretty "fancy" place... :-)

Photo #1 here shows the main facade of the building, complete with broken windows, rusting awning, and missing (presumed removed to safekeeping, vs. stolen?) clock. If you zoom in on the broken windows it *might* be possible to see the still intact rather enormous brass/bronze (?) chandeliers hanging in there -- they definitely exist and I captured them in many other pics specifically, but I only get 4 pics here... <groan>

Photo #2 is the southern wing and its entrance and awning (remains), I'm guessing this was likely the "freight service" lobby entrance but don't really know for sure. Photo #3 is the north wing of the building -- to the left hand side at below street-grade level part of a series of angled loading docks are seen where freight would have come and gone on trucks, not seen is the nifty red brick pavement of the docks themselves or the portions of this lowest level underneath the main passenger lobby. Photo #4 shows the northernmost end of the structure, the only part thereof which is currently occupied and serving as the Texarkana AMTRAK Station.

If there is interest I can create another showing with some other pics of the 'tracks' side of the building, the light fixtures inside, or whatever else anybody might like to have a look at -- leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do?!