Cincinnati Union Terminal 3

TRAIN  CONCOURSE / WAITING  ROOM  MURALS

   The artist Winold Reiss was selected to do the murals at the Cincinnati Union Terminal. He began by visiting at least 17 Cincinnati factories to photograph workers performing their various jobs. He then took these photographs and, in some cases combining them into one image, used them to layout his murals. Originally the murals were to be executed as oil paintings on canvas but Reiss convinced the architects that using glass mosaic tiles would be much more effective. They would not only be more brilliant, but also last longer. Reiss got his way but it cost him in the reduction of his commission in the project.
  The murals are actually a combination of two techniques. All the human figures are in glass tiles along with some background shapes such as shadows that are outlined in tiles. The remainder of the mural uses frescoed concrete - concrete that has the color added to it while it is still wet. The photographs that Reiss took were enlarged to full size (20' by 20') and then cut into 2 foot squares. These were passed out to the craftsmen at the Ravenna Tile Company in New York. Under the direction of Reiss and Company owner, Paul Heudeck, each craftsman would choose from over 8,000 shades of tile to implement that section of the mural. A rough drawing of the mural would be colored so that the craftsman would know what colors Reiss wanted the tiles to be. The two foot section were pasted, face down on heavy brown paper and sent to Cincinnati where Weiss would then supervise their installation. The 14 Murals that once lined the passenger concourse are refered to as the "Industrial or Worker Murals" and Reiss intended that they portrayed the factory worker of Cincinnati with dignity and respect. The image below shows the Baldwin mural with the two foot squares marked off and the colored drawing used for reference.

    The largest mural at the terminal was located at the western end of the train concourse and extended almost the entire width of the back wall. It depicted the eastern and western hemispheres on either end and a map of the Unite States in the center. It also showed the 5 time zones of North America. It spelled out major cities in red, and outlined states in yellow. The first photo below shows this mural and also shows the seating that was arranged at the front of each gate. Under the mural was a luncheonette counter. The second image shows this mural before it was destroyed. Unfortunately the map was to large to be saved by the wrecking ball.

   This is just a portion of the mosaic map that was on the far western wall. 

    Below are 14 postcards showing these mosaics. The photographs shown are some of the ones used to create them.

               
American Laundry Mach. Co.      Baldwin Piano Company                    Philip Carey               

   The American Laundry mosaic represented the machinery manufactures. The Baldwin Piano Co. represented the musical traditions and skilled craftsmen industries. Phillip Carey represented the paper products industry.

                       
        Crosley Corporation                                                    Lunken Airport with Aeronca Factory

   The Crosley Corporation represented the radio broadcasting and production industries and the Aeronca aircraft represented the transportation industry.

                       
 American Oak Leather  Co.          Ault & Wiborg Corp.                Proctor & Gamble Co.            Kahn Meat Packing Co.

   The American Oak Leather Co. (no longer in existence) represented the leather tanning industry. The Ault & Wiborg Co. represented the printing inks, and dyes industry. Proctor & Gamble represented the soap industry and E. Kahn & Sons represented the meat packaging and slaughtering industry.

                   
    William Merrell Co.                                       U.S. Playing Card Co.                                        Andrews Rolling Mill

   William Merrell represented the pharmaceutical industry, the United States Playing Card Company (makers of the "Bicycle " brand) represented the printing, publishing and lithography industries. Andrews Steel of Newport, KY represented the steel mill industry. 

               
Cincinnati Milling Machine Co

   The first Cincinnati Milling Machine Co. (Milacron) mosaic represented the foundry work in the machine tool industry and the second mosaic  represented the machine tool industry.

   The 3 cards below were taken from the top of a hill called Bald Knob. This is the hill where all the filling material was obtained for this construction project.

Union Station's  USO lounge

                                       
Train leaving concourse                     1956 scene at engine house                      Real Photo of P.R.R. train

                           
Powhatan Arrow leaves terminal                                                Kansas City Southern                                
This was the day train to Norfolk, Va.                                                                                                                    

1943  WAR  BOND  TOUR

   On September 15, 1943 the Third War Loan Drive came to Cincinnati. The drive started on September 8 and ended on October 2. On September 21, Kate Smith raised $39 Million through a broadcast on CBS. The 3rd War Loan totaled almost $19 Billion. The 1st image above show the movie stars that were on this tour when it came to Cincinnati. Except for a couple of the stars on the right side I will name them going from left to right. James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Margie Stewart, Dorothy Merritt, Kay Kyser, Doris Merrick, Paul Henried, Greer Garson, Eddie Buzzell (show director), Betty Hutton, Kathryn Grayson, Jose Iturbi, Rosemary Laplanche, Harpo Marx, Lucille Ball, Fred Astaire, Georgia Carroll, Ruth Brady, Muriel Goodspeed, and Dick Powell. The people between Fred Astaire and  Dick Powell are not all named and I am not sure who is who. The 2nd image is one of the over 152,000 advertisements (Free) placed in newspapers and magazines to promote this drive.

SOME  MODERN  PHOTOGRAPHS

                       
A Different View                View From Entrance                                   Two Distant Views                   

   To see modern chrome postcards of the Cincinnati Union Terminal click- HERE -use your backspace button to return to this page.

TERMINAL  DURING  USE  AS  A  SHOPPING  MALL

A  FEW  FACTS  AND  FIGURES:

• 5,663,065 cubic yards of fill material used.

• 224,534 cubic yards of concrete poured, not including 100,500 square yards of paving.

• 8,250,000 bricks used.

• 45,421 net tons of steel used in both bridge and building construction. (see viaducts page for information on the bridge work)

• Water consumption was estimated to be 550,000,000 gallons per year.

• Boiler house capacity was 225,000 lbs. of live steam per hour.

• 8,500,000 kilowatt hours of electricity purchased annually, enough for a city of 60,000 people.

• The terminal could handle 17,000 people and 216 trains daily. (108 in-108 out).

This was the only font used by the Cincinnati Union Terminal