Postcards from the South: IC Depot – New Orleans

This undated postcard depicts the Illinois Central (IC) Depot in New Orleans, later referred to as Union Station, opened in 1892^{1 2} and demolished in 1954.^{3 4}

Officially credited to Louis Sullivan, the project likely had at least some input from Sullivan’s assistant at the time, Frank Lloyd Wright, who drafted the station’s blueprints.⁵

In the depot design, you can spot the nascent elements of what would become the Prairie School style: the low-slung composition, hip roof, wide eaves, and patterned grouping of windows on the side were all radically different from the prevailing architecture of the time—certainly in the Deep South.

That’s not to say it was an attractive building, though. In fact, I would consider it downright ugly. The New Orleans press apparently agreed, with the Times-Picayune saying rather demurely at the station’s opening:

“It is not the finest depot in America, but it is a comfortable, ornamental building…”⁶

Ouch.

My pet theory is that the IC Depot’s design influenced G.L. Norrman—you knew I’d fit him into this somehow.

Norrman visited New Orleans at least four times between 1893 and 1894,^{7 8 9 10 11}and he must have seen the structure. Within a few years, he fully embraced low-slung buildings with hip roofs, though he began heading in that direction with his design for the C.D. Hurt Residence in 1893.

Note the similarities between the depot and Norrman’s design for the Eureka Hotel (1902), or better yet, Denmark Hall (1901), which included a hip roof, thin chimneys, a porch lined with columns, and a second-floor balustrade, much like the depot.

There’s no such thing as original art.

References

1. “The Railroads.” The Daily Picayune (New Orleans), June 1, 1892, p. 9. ↩︎
2. “Railroad Racket.” The Times-Democrat (New Orleans), June 1, 1892, p. 9. ↩︎
3. “Partial Use of New R.R. Station Is Slated to Start Next Friday”. The Times-Picayune (New Orleans), January 3, 1954, p. 1. ↩︎
4. “Train Service Is Inaugurated in Union Passenger Facility”. The Times-Picayune (New Orleans), January 9, 1954, p. 1. ↩︎
5. Louis Sullivan’s sophisticated Union Depot welcomed train passengers to New Orleans for more than 60 years | Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans ↩︎
6. “The Railroads.” The Daily Picayune (New Orleans), June 1, 1892, p. 9. ↩︎
7. “The Social World.” The Atlanta Journal, December 9, 1893, p. 10. ↩︎
8. “Personal”. The Daily Picayune (New Orleans), December 24, 1893, p. 8. ↩︎
9. “Society”. The Atlanta Journal, January 17, 1894, p. 2. ↩︎
10. “Personal.” The Times Democrat (New Orleans), June 22, 1894, p. 3. ↩︎
11. “In the Social World.” The Atlanta Journal, November 30, 1894, p. 2. ↩︎