The History of Tampa Union Station

Designed by architect J.F. Leitner of Wilmington, NC (who later became a Tampa resident), this Italian Renaissance Revival style building was opened on May 15, 1912, by the Tampa Union Station Company. 

Its original purpose was to combine passenger operations for the Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard Air Line, and the Tampa Northern Railroad at a single site.

Tampa Union Station served railroad passengers through the Great Depression, both World Wars, and into the Amtrak era. 

Throughout the 1950s, however, Federal investments in highways and air travel undermined Tampa Union Station’s future. Passenger train ridership began to decline heavily during the ‘50s — a trend that continued throughout the next two decades. As passenger train ridership fell over the years, the station started to suffer from deferred maintenance.

Threatened with demolition, Tampa Union Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 2, 1974.

By the 1980s, the roof of the old depot leaked with every rain, plaster regularly fell from the ceiling, and paint peeled throughout the proud terminal — neglect in part brought about by the shifting loyalties of the traveling public. DC-9s and interstate highways were now the modes of transport favored by the majority of those coming and going to and from Tampa.

Inevitably, Tampa Union Station closed to the public in 1984. For the next 14 years, Amtrak passengers arriving and departing from Tampa had to use a temporary “make do” ticket office and waiting room in a prefabricated building located adjacent to the station platforms.

In 1991, TUSP&R acquired Tampa Union Station via a mortgage held by CSX, the freight railroad company and corporate descendant of its original railroad owners. What’s more, TUSP&R was successful in its efforts to raise funds for the restoration of the station.

Led largely by volunteers, TUSP&R raised over $4 million for the building’s restoration through grants and loans. Funding sources included the Florida Department of Transportation (ISTEA funds), the City of Tampa (grant funds), and the National Trust for Historic Preservation (no-interest loan).

Restoration of Tampa Union Station was a multiyear effort, with Rowe Architects serving as historic preservation architect for the project. Restoration was completed in May 1998.

Upon the restoration’s completion, the station reopened to Amtrak passengers and the public. CSX donated the station to the City of Tampa that same year.

More modest restoration work has continued at the station over the decades, with the completion of the rehabilitation of Union Station’s baggage building by the City of Tampa in 2002. In 2011, Amtrak renovated one of the station platforms thanks to a federal transportation grant.

In 2008, the all-volunteer nonprofit organization Friends of Tampa Union Station was founded. The same year, the Friends established a permanent endowment fund for the care and upkeep of Tampa Union Station at the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay. Income from the endowment assists with maintenance and ongoing restoration at Union Station.

In 2009, the City of Tampa’s Official Poet Laureate, James E. Tokley, Sr., authored a poem about the history of Union Station entitled “The Epic of Tampa Union Station.” This poem is available on the City of Tampa’s website. 

In 2012, Tampa Union Station’s Centennial year, the station was added to the National Register of Historic Railroad Landmarks by the National Railway Historical Society.

In recent years, Tampa Union Station has also been discovered by Tampa’s arts and cultural community. Art exhibits have been hosted in the baggage building and the station will anchor one end of a planned rehabilitation of Zack Street into a “promenade of the arts.”