The $300,000 marble station on Delmar Boulevard

The city of St. Louis and the Wabash Railroad fought for years over eliminating grade crossings. In 1927, they finally agreed to reconstruct the area - the railroad tracks were depressed to allow a clearance of 18 feet beneath Delmar Boulevard, and the city constructed a new concrete viaduct to carry the boulevard and streetcars over the tracks.

Construction on the station began in June 1928, right after the viaduct opened. It cost $300,000 to construct. Wabash advertisements claimed "no effort had been spared" to provide comfort in the station. They used granite, limestone, and brick for the Ionic-style exterior. Inside, they used bronze, ornamental plaster, and marble from Tennessee on the walls and floors.

It served as a high-volume transfer point where passengers transferred between the Wabash Cannon Ball and the City of St. Louis at Delmar Boulevard instead of Union Station. The station once handled 40% of all Wabash boardings in the city. By the time the Norfolk and Western Railway closed the doors in 1970, the station had served as the last in and first out stop for all Wabash long-distance passenger service to and from St. Louis Union Station.

Today, the MetroLink's Red Line passes underneath the station. Metrolink built a new station, Delmar Loop, below the old building but does not use the structure. The station sat empty for years, survived a failed $427,500 sale to the Bi-State Development Agency, and now has a part-owner in Washington University in St. Louis.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons