Few buildings tell a city’s story like Union Station Kansas City. Opened in 1914, when Kansas City was one of America’s great rail hubs, its soaring Grand Hall — with 95-foot ceilings, chandeliers and a famous six-foot clock — still stops first-time visitors in their tracks.
Saved from demolition and reborn in 1999, the station today hums with life: the hands-on Science City museum, the Arvin Gottlieb Planetarium, blockbuster traveling exhibitions like this year’s North American premiere of “The Berlin Wall. A World Divided.”, a giant-screen theater, model railroads and restaurants — all inside a working Amtrak station.
The station also knows how to celebrate: its Holiday Reflections display transforms the Grand Hall into a winter wonderland each season, and Chiefs and Royals rallies have made its front steps the city’s favorite gathering place.
Best of all, simply walking into the Grand Hall is free. Come for a museum, stay for the architecture, and meet me under the clock — as generations of Kansas Citians have always said.
