Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-11-09
THE UNION DEPOT.

THE UNION DEPOT.
Action of the City Council-Talks with
Railroad Men-The Proposed Legislation
Satisfactory, and the Work to Boom
Ahead.
The matter of Union depot for the accom-
mediation of the many railroads having their
initial or terminal points in St. Paul. has long
been cherished idea with our citizens. The
idea has also found favor with the different
railroad companies and annually for years past
it has been brought prominently before the
public and its advantages and disadvantages
discussed by the business men, the city fathers
and the railroad men. During all these years
the excuse for the failure of any railroad COM
pany to furnish such accommodations as the
present and prospective business of the city
would warrant, was that the comparatively
small extent of territory within the central
portion of the city suitable for railroad
purposes necessitated consolidation and
concentration by the several companies, and
that extensive Improvements by any single
company would not be warranted from the
fact that such Improvements would have to be
abandoned in short time.
In the flush times just preceding the great
financial crash from which the country is JUS t
beginning to recuperate, the prospect for a
realization of the union depot idea seemed
about to be fulfilled. The crash was so general
and widespread, and coupled with the grass
hopper visitation to Minnesota, so disastrous to
the railroad interests centering here, that the
Union depot and all other improvements by
the railroad companies except those of actual
necessity, were relegated by common consent
to the future.
In the meantime, hard times East and cheap
productive lands in Minnesota, started a large
immigration hitherward. This made increased
business for the railroads. Then followed sea-
sons of good crops in the Northwest, especially
in Minnesota with crop failures in Europe,
With this prosperity naturally came a renew
al of the Union depot agitation The agitation
bore fruit in the formation of the ''Union De-
pot and Transfer company" with all the rail
road organizations centering in st. Paul as cor.
porators. This was perfected early the present
season. Owing to the large interests involved
there were many matters of detail to be settled
the site, style of building, rates. etc. All these
were happily settled, though the entire build
ing season has been consumed in doing it.
THE COUNCIL AND THE DEPOT COMPANY.
Finally, having perfected its arrangements,
the ''Union Depot and Transfer company ap.
pear before the city council asking for the va
cation of certain streets and part of the levee
This request came up for action in the council
Friday evening, and the fact that the request
of the company as made was not granted caused
quite general fear that the enterprise had re.
ceived check which might again operate tC
postpone the much needed Improvement. 10
allay this fear, if possible, or at least to show
the real import of the action of the council,
a GLOBE envoy yesterday, called at the office
of the Union Depot and Transfer com pany. Mr.
Stickney, when found, had but just returned
to the city, and had only given the council pro-
ceedings a cursory glance, but from his under
standing of the action takeu, it was all that
the company could reasonably require. In his
opinion the city ought to reserve full control
over Broadway street. The river interests of st..
Paul were important, and nothing should be
done by the city to imperil them in the least
Wacouta and Rosabel streets must of necessity,
be vacated tie give proper facilities for reach
ing and doing the business of the proposed de-
pot, but at the same time
the city should look out for and
protect its facilities for getting to and from the
levee, and doing the river business. Siblev
street was now the main street for this bust
ness. As he understood it, the action of the
council, when fully worked out, meant that the
line, except the space granted for four railroad
tracks across it, should be reserved for levee
purposes, in pursuance of which the old
freight houses of the st. Paul L. Pacific rail-
road, and the Davidson elevator, lying along
the river between Sibley and Rosabel streets,
would have to be removed to point below
Broadway street. In short Mr.. Stickney did
not see anything unfavorable to the union de-
pot enterprise in the action of the council and
saw no reason why the work should not be for
warded to completion at as early day as the
circumstances of the case would allow.
Mr. II n ofo rof %l,oT TIL
Depot company, and who was present at the
council meeting, was also called upon by the
GLOBE envoy, and was found to be we'll salts
fed with the action taken. At first, he said, it
looked as though the council was going to
cripple the. enterprise by refusal to extend
the necessary guarantees, but its final recon-
mendations, while not exactly in the form de-
sired by the company, accomplished the pur-
pose. The proposed Union depot building,
with the train Sheds was to be $40 feet in
length, extending from Sibley street to within
,l4O feet of Broadway, the depot proper being
about 100 feet square. This of necessity
closed up Wacouta and Rosabel streets,
granted. The recommendation also
abandoned a strip of IS feet from Wacouta
to Broadway, necessary to make the levee line
along this space the same as between Wacouta
and Jackson streets, and gave them permanent
right of way for tracks across the whole length
of the levee. This was all they really desired,
and while by its action the council
had provided for protecting its
levee interests in such a way as to give that
interest all needed facilities for doing it's bust
ness expeditiously and economically, he did
not see that it had or proposed to act preiudi-
ciously to the interests of the depot company.
In fact the council, it seemed to him, was SIM
ply DESTROYS of preserving and fostering it's
present levee facilities, while at the same time
giving the depot company all reason
able facilities for the successful reali-
cation of its project, and the work would go
forward to completion without hindrance.
Several other railroad men, all interested in
the depot enterprise, and necessarily in the
property of St. Paul, were seen by the envoy,
but as their views, while expressed in some
what different terms, led to the same results,
we do not give them. To sum all up, the
Union depot is certainty.
Holiday Jeweiry.
Diamonds, single and beautifully mounted;