New London Union Station is a railroad station on the Northeast Corridor located in downtown New London, Connecticut, United States. Union Station is a station stop for most Amtrak Northeast Regional trains and all CT Rail Shore Line East commuter rail trains, making it the primary railroad station in southeastern Connecticut. It serves as the centerpiece of the Regional Intermodal Transit Center, with connections to local and intercity buses as well as ferries to Long Island and Fishers Island, New York, and Block Island, Rhode Island. The station has one side platform and one island platform serving the two-track Northeast Corridor; the latter platform also serves a siding track that connects to the New England Central Railroad mainline.
Rail service to New London began with the New London, Willimantic, and Palmer Railroad in 1848 and the New Haven and New London Railroad in 1852. The original stations were each replaced in the 1860s; after several consolidations, they were served by the Central Vermont Railway (CV) and New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (New Haven) by the 1870s. After one of the stations burned in 1885, a new three-story brick union station was erected in 1887. It was the last and largest railroad station designed by famed architect H. H. Richardson, and his best according to biographer Henry-Russell Hitchcock.
Passenger service declined in the 20th century; all CV passenger service to New London ended in 1949. The New London Redevelopment Agency began planning in 1961 to demolish the station as part of urban renewal. Amtrak took over passenger service in May 1971; Union Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places the next month following a local effort. After several years of controversy over whether to demolish or preserve the structure, it was purchased by architect George M. Notter in 1975. Notter's firm renovated the station for combined use by Amtrak and commercial tenants; it was the first station to be restored for Amtrak's use, and one of the earliest cases of adaptive reuse of an industrial-age building in New England.
Shore Line East commuter service joined Amtrak intercity service at the station in 1996. High-level platforms were added in 2001 to serve the new Acela Express service. A second renovation in 2002–03 restored the exterior and returned the waiting room to its original configuration. The planned National Coast Guard Museum, which will be located across the tracks from the station, will include a long-planned footbridge over the tracks.
History and design
Early stations Union Station is the sixth railroad station to serve New London. When the New London, Willimantic, and Palmer Railroad opened in 1848, an existing building on Water Street a block east of Federal Street was converted into a station. A two-story Greek Revival depot was built near the modern location in 1852 with the arrival of the New Haven and New London Railroad (NH&NL). The New London, Willimantic, and Palmer continued to use its older station for some time, although a track was built to join the two railroads.
In 1854, a connecting track was opened through downtown Norwich, allowing trains from the Norwich and Worcester Railroad to connect with steamships at New London rather than Allyn's Point. Use of the connection stopped in November 1855, but was continuous after April 1859. After the completion of the New London and Stonington Railroad to Groton Wharf in 1858, ferry service ran from New London to Groton to allow through railroad service. The NH&NL station was soon too small to handle large passenger loads, and the Bureau of Railroad Commissioners was petitioned for a new station as early as 1859.
The New Haven and New London Railroad merged with the New London and Stonington in 1857 to form the New Haven, New London and Stonington Railroad. The line was leased by the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad (NYP&B) in 1859. The NYP&B bought the section east of Groton outright in 1864; the section from New London westward was spun off as the Shore Line Railway. In 1870, the Shore Line was leased by the New York and New Haven Railroad, which itself became part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1872. At some point during this series of events, the 1852-built station was replaced by a larger, two-story structure, which was also used by some through trains from the north.
In 1861, the New London Northern Railroad succeeded the New London, Willimantic, and Palmer. That year, the railroad constructed a freight depot and steamboat wharf (likely also used for passenger trains) along Water Street. The depot burned on May 8, 1864, but was rebuilt on the same site.
The NYP&B-era station was highly unpopular; the Bureau was petitioned for a replacement not long after it was built, and local newspapers took up the issue in 1874 and 1875. In 1877, the commissioners referred to the "wholly insufficient and inconvenient accommodations" at the station. When the building burned on February 5, 1885, one newspaper remarked "few New London people are sorry, as the ancient structure had long since outlived its usefulness." It was torn down in April 1886.
H.H. Richardson station
After the previous depot was destroyed, the Central Vermont Railroad (which then leased the New London Northern) began making plans for a larger replacement station. The Central Vermont and the New Haven Railroad (which had bought the Shore Line in 1870) bought the east end of the Parade from New London for the unusually low price of $15,000, with the understanding that the railroads would build a structure more suitable for the bustling city.
Noted American architect Henry Hobson Richardson, known for his public buildings including several Boston and Albany Railroad depots, was hired by the Central Vermont in September 1885 to design the new station. Richardson likely obtained the commission through his friend and former classmate James A. Rumrill, who was a director of the railroad. New London was the last of many railroad stations worked on by Richardson before his death in 1886, though numerous others were designed by his students (including the nearby New London Public Library designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge). Many of Richardson's later attributed works were designed primarily by his office staff, but the quality of the design indicates that it was closely supervised by Richardson. Richardson's biographer, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, considered New London to be his best station design.
Union Station is particularly large for a Richardson train station, and stands out as the only of his stations not built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style of Trinity Church in Boston. Instead, it is a "severe, compact brick box", with significant Colonial influence taken from other buildings in New London. Its design is heavily based on Sever Hall at Harvard University, which Richardson designed in 1878. The station has a similar profile, brick color and patterns, and arched entryway, but lacks the ornamentation of Sever. Richardson originally designed Union Station with rough stone walls and Longmeadow trim like his other stations, but the material was changed to less expensive brick shortly before construction; the ornamentation was also likely eliminated at this time. The strict symmetry is atypical of Richardson's designs and may have been a later change by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge after Richardson's death.
Although different from his other stations, the -story structure features many of Richardson's characteristic motifs, including its multi-faceted roof, prominent arched entrance, and elegant brickwork. Like many of his stations, the roofline is dominant and contrasts the monochrome walls. The bricks are arranged in a mixture of Flemish bond and two different herringbone styles, broken by details around windows and doors, to create visual interest. A projecting central section tempers the roofline on the east and west facades, while the dormers shown a slight Asian influence common in his designs. The rear bay window – the lone circular element save for the matching arched front doorway – served as the ticket booth. The ceiling and third floor are suspended from the roof trusses using an array of -diameter iron rods, which allowed for a large two-story waiting room without interior columns. The platform canopy was notable for matching the broad curve of the tracks; it originally extended further south, with a raised "eyebrow" section over State Street.
The new station began construction in September 1886 and opened in 1887, with a total cost of $76,300. It was designated a union station as it connected two railroads – the Central Vermont Railroad which succeeded the New London, Willimantic, and Palmer, and the Shore Line which would merge into the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1897. The Thames River Bridge was opened in October 1889, connecting the station to the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad and completing the Shore Line rail link from New York to Boston. The southern end of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad was completed through Gales Ferry in June 1899, allowing traffic from Worcester to reach New London via the bridge rather than through Norwich.
Around 1912, New London citizens successfully petitioned the Public Utilities Commission for the installation of a footbridge connecting the station to the ferry docks in order to improve pedestrian safety. At the time, with no bridge crossing the river below Norwich, the ferries were heavily used. The footbridge, constructed of steel with a canopy to keep out rain, was constructed soon after.
Decline and revival
Central Vermont passenger service running north ended in 1949, but service running east and west along the Shore Line has remained continuous since the station was built. In the latter days of the New Haven Railroad, infrastructure was not maintained in order to cut costs, and stations like New London suffered for it. In 1953, the railroad asked the Public Utilities Commission for permission to remove the footbridge, but the request was denied. The railroad petitioned again in 1961, seeking to spend $1,250 to remove the bridge rather than $15,000 repairing it. Of the average 132 people using the bridge daily (versus 612 crossing the tracks on the street), most were reportedly using it as an "observation post" to view the harbor. In 1955, architect Marcel Breuer designed new stations at Rye and New London for the New Haven Railroad as part of a design program overseen by Knoll Associates. Neither new station was ultimately built.
In 1961, the New London Redevelopment Agency called for the station to be demolished to make room for a shopping mall or department store as an "urban renewal" project. This began a fifteen-year fight over the station building, pitting the Redevelopment Agency against a small group of private citizens who wished to have the building restored for further use. The city paid $120,000 to buy the station; demolition costs were estimated at $55,000. The New Haven Railroad folded into Penn Central in 1969; continually beset with financial problems, Penn Central had no interest in investing in the station. The station by this time was "a dust-covered derelict with urine-soaked floors and peeling ceilings." Amtrak took over intercity passenger service on May 1, 1971; Penn Central continued to operate a limited amount of local service that was discontinued over the rest of the decade. After a local effort, Union Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in June 1971 over the lobbying efforts of former mayor Richard Martin. Martin claimed that ninety percent of the city agreed with the redevelopment plans. Under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the addition to the NRHP prevented local authorities from using federal funds for demolition, although the law did not provide for enforcement or punishment.