210 S. Canal, at Adams Street

Upon entering the central waiting room of the old Union Station from the congested, commercialized rabbit warren of its newer addition, you may feel as if you’d died and gone to heaven. Celestial light pours in from distant, vaulted skylights. Stone columns soar to gilded capitals on high. The human din of fast food restaurants, news stands and ATMs is dimmed, and silence reigns, its peace broken only by a small child’s awestruck “Wow!”

The last of Chicago’s great turn-of-the-century train depots, and one of the few left in the nation, Union Station was designed by the architectural firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White in the style to which Americans had become accustomed at the dawn of the twentieth century. Monumental architecture housed our colossal national ambitions, and Chicago’s role as a railroad hub spurred construction of multiple train stations in the immediate area of the Loop. The Illinois Central and Rock Island Depots, and our own Grand Central Station at Harrison and Wells are now demolished, while Dearborn Station at Polk Street has become a Galleria, but the 1909 Union Station stands, and has been refurbished within the last decade. The travertine interior is clean and bright, with rows of polished wooden benches standing ready to offer relief to the tired traveler.

The labyrinthine interior of the station’s modernized track area is frequently under construction, but the complex itself has evolved into a civilized waystation for the traveler, including both a Starbuck’s and a soundproofed children’s play room. Twenty stories of office space were planned above the train station itself, but only eight were completed. Its restrained exterior is in such good taste as to be almost invisible, and although the Elgin clock faces that decorate its sides are infrequently on time, its familiar architectural vernacular of streetside colonnades and massive doors pleasantly evokes the golden era of railroad travel.

If you are stranded by a delayed train, excursions in the immediate vicinity are unlikely to give you a taste of Chicago; to appropriate Gertrude Stein’s estimation of Oakland, California, “there’s no there there.” You can make your way a block east to view the Chicago River, or head two blocks north to visit local architect Helmut Jahn’s glass-and-steel interpretation of a modern commuter rail terminal at Northwestern Station. Your time will be well spent, however, in the old waiting room, a place that inspires revery. Its noble proportions and dignity speak of a bygone time when public spaces honored the public they were meant to serve.

You can preview the station’s floorplan with a map found on http://chicago.sidewalk.com/detail/26723 or check out Amtrak’s website at http://www.amtrak.com to discover how to get there from wherever you may be.

Happy rails to you!