Traveling Through Time: The Art and Architecture of the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal

Figure 1.

Interior of New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, c. 1953. Photograph by Leon Trice. New Orleans Railroad Terminal Board Series, Municipal Government Photographic Collection.

Image courtesy of the Louisiana Division/CityArchives, New Orleans Public Library.

A photograph of the sleek, marble interior of the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, taken in late 1953 shortly before its public opening in January 1954, captures the modernist optimism the train station stood for and the triumph that was its completion (figure 1). There was an excitement and anticipation to be found in the concourse's gleaming surfaces and rows of stylish seating. However, upon further inspection, the background of the photograph betrays this confidence. On the right one sees local artist Conrad Albrizio perched on scaffolding, working on one of his four massive fresco murals encircling the Terminal's waiting area. The two panels closest to the viewer have not yet been started, containing only rough outlines. Seemingly the last element to be finalized in the building, Albrizio's rush to finish his murals in many ways mirrors the countless challenges that plagued the building of the Terminal for decades.

As is often the case with buildings that serve the public—courthouses, city halls, libraries, corporate headquarters—the visible features of such structures project a kind of calculated symbolism. References to power, stability, financial soundness, and the like abound and are incorporated into a building's art and architecture, both inside and out. The city of New Orleans is no different. Yet while scholars have looked to the ways in which the city's defining architectural fabric relates to its urban history and civic identity, the mid-century New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal has been largely overlooked. The Terminal is a unique case study in that its art and architecture expressed many of the paradoxes found in the larger city of New Orleans—it was rooted firmly in a romanticized past but strove to look forward and be modem; it was all at once French, Spanish, English, and American; free people of color lived alongside the enslaved; and African American musicians, like Louis Armstrong and Earl Palmer, were celebrated but still forced to follow Jim Crow laws.

The difficulties surrounding the Terminal's realization, as well as the aesthetic decisions that shaped its mural program and architecture, were dictated by a complex and often contradictory set of factors. The Terminal sought to embody the spirit of progress for the city of New Orleans and the railroad companies it served with its modernist architecture, state-of the-art amenities, and interior encircled by dynamic, avant-garde murals. Despite being stalled for years due to funding battles, the building project was revived by New Orleans Mayor deLesseps S. "Chep" Morrison almost immediately upon taking office in 1946. Morrison sought to revitalize New Orleans through large-scale urban renewal projects that modernized the city and worked in conjunction with a renewed effort to increase tourism through promoting the history and heritage of the city (Souther, New Orleans 23, 26, 33; Souther, "Making" 119-21). The Terminal was an important component of Morrison's plan for the area west of the French Quarter, which included a new Civic Center (Haas 58; Goodstein 229). A joint venture between the railroad companies and the city, the Terminal also consolidated existing train depots spread across New Orleans and, more importantly, updated the experience of train travel in an effort to stay competitive with commercial airlines. Together, the clean lines of the Terminal worked in tandem with Albrizio's vibrant, abstracted murals to offer tourists and locals alike a travel experience that mirrored the forward push of modernity. Yet, Albrizio's murals also functioned in another way, as they pointed to a future that was directed at a more inclusive public—one that held African Americans as equal subjects at a time when civil rights debates were mounting and the "separate but equal" doctrine was overturned.

The Saga to Build the Terminal

As the only municipally-owned station in...