The Denver and Rio Grande Western Depot, commonly referred to as the Rio Grande Depot, is a former

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing ...

on the western edge of

Downtown Salt Lake City Downtown (also called City Center) is the oldest district in Salt Lake City, Utah. The grid plan, grid from which the entire city is laid out originates at Temple Square, the location of the Salt Lake Temple. Location Downtown Salt Lake City is ...

History

The depot was constructed by the

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south from De ...

in 1910 at a cost of US$750,000. The depot was the main jewel of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, and was designed by Chicago architect Henry Schlacks, who was best known in Chicago for his design of churches, but had also designed the Denver and Rio Grande Depot in Grand Junction, Colorado, for the railroad. It was specifically intended to surpass the nearby Salt Lake City Union Pacific Depot, which had been built the previous year for US$300,000. Schlacks's relationship with D&RG was fraught with antagonism, mainly over his pay, which led to delay in the depot's construction. One interesting, and ironic, point was that Schlacks's brother was D&RG's vice president. The depot was built with elements of

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

and Beaux Arts. The high-arched windows at the center were originally installed with green glass to keep the waiting area cool. The depot included a barber shop, a restaurant, a men's smoking room and a women's lounge. There was also a telegraph office and a souvenir/snack bar. The depot opened Salt Lake City to a new influx of immigrants. The depot was also a central point in shipping soldiers off to war in both World War I and World War II. The rise of highway auto travel in the 1950s struck a blow to rail travel and service at the depot dwindled. The depot was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1975. The State of Utah purchased the depot in 1977 for US$1 and the building is currently home to the Utah State Historical Society and its research center, the Utah Department of Heritage & Arts, as well as the Rio Gallery. The depot was damaged during the 2020 Salt Lake City earthquake, requiring tenants (including a café and the Utah Division of State History) to relocate.

Amtrak

From 1986 to 1999, the depot served as Salt Lake City's

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...

station, replacing the Union Pacific Depot. It was served by the ''

California Zephyr The ''California Zephyr'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area (at Emeryville), via Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno. At , it is Amtrak's longest daily route, and second-longest overall ...

'', ''

Desert Wind The ''Desert Wind'' was an Amtrak long-distance passenger train that ran from 1979 to 1997. It operated from Chicago to Los Angeles as a section of the ''California Zephyr'', serving Los Angeles via Salt Lake City; Ogden, Utah; and Las Vegas. ...

'', and '' Pioneer'' trains, with the latter two having been discontinued in 1997. The ''California Zephyr'' runs once daily between

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and

Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisco Bay. The resident population was 12,905 ...

. The former ''Desert Wind'' ran daily from Chicago to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, and the former ''Pioneer'' ran daily Chicago to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

. By 1999, Amtrak had moved to the

Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub The Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub (also known as Salt Lake Central on Utah Transit Authority TAroutes and SLC by Amtrak) is a multi-modal transportation hub in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States served by the Blue Line of UTA's TRAX light ...

, after which the tracks near the depot were permanently removed.

Future

Since 2015, the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency has designated the areas directly west of the Rio Grande Depot as "Station Center" and made their redevelopment into a mixed-use, transit-oriented district one of its priorities. The Depot itself is now considered by the agency to be a "barrier to development" because of its position blocking 300 South Street.

Rio Grande Plan

In 2020, citizen professionals proposed reopening the Depot as Salt Lake City's main passenger rail and bus terminal, replacing Salt Lake Central Station. The "Rio Grande Plan" would move all downtown rail traffic underground into a cut-and-cover trench along 500 West, with Amtrak and

FrontRunner FrontRunner is a commuter rail train operated by the Utah Transit Authority that operates along the Wasatch Front in north-central Utah with service from the Ogden Intermodal Transit Center in central Weber County through Davis County, Salt ...

trains serving sunlit platforms on the west side of the Depot. UTA's bus and TRAX light rail routes would stop at the east side of the Depot on Rio Grande Street, while regional buses would board at the north and south sides. The proposal would also eliminate three

overpass An overpass (called an overbridge or flyover in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries) is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway. An ''overpass'' and '' underpass'' together for ...

es, five grade crossings, and 52 acres of

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...

s—opening up redevelopment opportunities while improving safety and connectivity. The authors estimate the cost of the project would be $300 to $500 million, pointing to comparable work in

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is th ...

and

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. By 2021, the plan had started to gain traction among the Salt Lake City Council and other stakeholders. To move forward, the plan would require buy-in from the Utah state government, UTA, and

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

References

External links

Salt Lake City Amtrak Station, with former Rio Grande & Union Pacific Stations (USA RailGuide -- TrainWeb)

{{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Salt Lake City Former Amtrak stations in Utah Former Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad stations Former Western Pacific Railroad stations Former railway stations in Salt Lake City National Register of Historic Places in Salt Lake City Railway stations closed in 1999 Railway stations in the United States opened in 1910 Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Utah