Vulcan exhibit brings much-missed Terminal Station back to life

In 1969, Birmingham tore down its historic Terminal Station train depot, and many people have never gotten over the loss of the magnificent Byzantine-style structure with its 100-foot high dome and twin towers.

“Many Birmingham residents who are old enough to have experienced the station still seem to mourn its loss,” said Jennifer Watts, director of museum programs at Vulcan Park & Museum. “It was a place where people and families made memories, and it was a landmark in our city’s collective memory.”

When Terminal Station was demolished — for a development project that was never carried out — “Birmingham lost an architectural jewel, and Birmingham’s residents lost a piece of their lived experience,” Watts said.

But now, a half a century after the station’s loss, the Linn-Henley Gallery at Vulcan is giving area residents of all ages the chance to experience the place once dubbed “the great temple of travel.”

From May 17 through December 2019, in conjunction with Alabama’s Bicentennial celebration, the gallery will present an exhibit called “Terminal Station: Birmingham’s Great Temple of Travel.”

Using historic photographs and artifacts, this exhibit will recount the story of Birmingham’s Terminal Station from its construction in 1909 to its legacy today.

The exhibit draws heavily on a new illustrated book by author and train lover Marvin Clemons, “Great Temple of Travel: A Pictorial History of Birmingham Terminal Station, 1909-1969.”

The exhibit will examine Terminal Station — designed by renowned Atlanta architect Thornton Marye in the style of a European cathedral — as an architectural marvel.

It will put the station, which handled 52 daily trains at its peak, in the context of the golden age of rail travel in the early to mid-20th century.

The exhibit looks at the social and racial history of Terminal Station, which was the site of some Civil Rights Era protests and challenges.

And it examines how the loss of Terminal Station galvanized preservationists.

“That loss continues to drive historic preservation efforts in Birmingham, and a number of important sites — Sloss Furnaces, the Lyric Theater and even Vulcan — have been preserved because people did not want to relive the loss of a similarly important piece of our city’s history,” Watts said.  

For more information, call 933-1409 or go to visitvulcan.com/events.