The Burlington Station

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of attending an event at The Durham Museum in Omaha. If you are not familiar with the museum it’s located in the historic Union Railroad Station. Construction of the station started in 1929 and was officially dedicated on January 15, 1931. In 1975 the Union Station was turned into a museum and received a $22 million renovation in 1995. If you haven’t visited The Durham I’d highly recommend. The building is beautiful and the exhibits are interesting. When you are in The Durham you can look out across the railroad tracks and see the Burlington Railroad Station. Unfortunately the Burlington Station has not received the same care and renovation as the Union Station however it does have an interesting history. The Burlington Station was completed in time for the 1898 Tran-Mississippi Expo. The $350,000 Indiana limestone structure originally had 28 columns on the 10th street entrance. Each of the columns weighs approximately 18,000 pounds. The original interior included a double spiral stairway in the center of the second floor. As you can see from the images of the Burlington Station in Nebraska Memories it was a very interesting looking building. In 1930 the Burlington Station underwent a $1 million renovation. I’m guessing this renovation was done at this time to compete with the new Union Station being built across the tracks. As part of this renovation the columns were removed giving the station a more classical style. The columns however ended up on the University of Nebraska Lincoln campus near Memorial Stadium. As you can see from the picture I took last night Union Station looks much different with the columns removed. Union Station closed in 1971 and to the best of my knowledge remains vacant. Visit Nebraska Memories to search for or browse through many more historical images digitized from photographs, negatives, postcards, maps, lantern slides, books and other materials. Nebraska Memories is a cooperative project to digitize Nebraska-related historical and cultural heritage materials and make them available to researchers of all ages via the Internet. Nebraska Memories is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information, or contact Beth Goble, Government Information Services Director, or Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director. Update: In 2013, KETV NewsWatch 7 purchased the Burlington Station and renovated the building to use as their broadcast facility.