Union Station is where Hemingway first arrived in Kansas City on October 15th 1917, and where he was met by his friend Carl Edgar, who was living and working in Kansas City, before going to stay with his Uncle Alfred Tyler Hemingway.

The station was relatively new at that time, having opened to the public only 3 years earlier. It was designed in the Beaux Art architectural style by Jarvis Hunt and cost $6 million to build – the equivalent of $182 million in 2023. Union Station became known as one of the three great train stations in the country.

As a young reporter for the Kansas City Star, Hemingway covered mundane events at the station such as interviewing the Chicago Cubs baseball team on their way to Spring training in California, a tractor show, and, more poignantly, the case of a man lying ill with smallpox in one of the entrances to Union Station who, when an ambulance was taking far too long to come and collect him, Hemingway later claimed to have picked up, carried to a cab and accompanied to General Hospital. Steve Paul, a former writer and editor at the Kansas City Star, indicates in his book Hemingway at Eighteen that Hemingway may have exaggerated his role in this story, as he did with other events throughout his life.

Union Station still exists although it’s much more than a train station nowadays, being home to Science City, a planetarium, a model train gallery, City Theatre, a large screen movie theatre, and various touring exhibitions in the Station’s Bank of America Gallery. And of course, you can also catch a train from it, as Amtrak, Southwest Chief and Missouri River Runner operate services from the station. In addition to all this, Union Station is home to various award-winning restaurants, coffee shops, and other businesses.

Other well-known people to have passed through the station include Walt Disney, Joan Crawford, President Harry S. Truman, Katy Perry, Paul Rudd and Walter Cronkite. On June 17th 1933 a mass murder, now known as the Kansas City Massacre, took place outside Union Station when, according to the FBI, “Pretty Boy” Floyd and a number of other criminals attempted to free their friend, Frank “Jelly” Nash. At the time Nash was in the custody of several law enforcement officers who were returning him to the Penitentiary at Leavenworth from which he had escaped. Four of the officers were killed during the massacre along with Frank Nash himself. Floyd was killed by law enforcement officers the following year. It should be noted that the Floyd family maintained that Floyd vehemently denied any involvement in the Kansas City Massacre.

Next … The Hemingway Building (former Police Station No. 4)