Union Station Meridian: Where Five Railroads Met

At the turn of the twentieth century, Meridian was the largest city in Mississippi, and the reason was simple: five major railroad lines crossed here. By nineteen oh seven, forty trains a day arrived and departed, and the rail companies collectively provided more than six thousand jobs to city residents. To bring all that traffic under one roof, a consortium of four railroads built Union Station in nineteen oh six at a cost of two hundred fifty thousand dollars.

The architect designed it in Mission Revival style, with arched windows and a sweeping facade suited to the gateway city it served. By nineteen twenty, as many as one hundred trains a day passed through. The depot fell into disuse as passenger rail declined across the South, but Meridian restored it and rededicated the building in December of nineteen ninety-seven. It now serves as a multimodal transportation hub and sits inside the Meridian Downtown Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, a monument to the era when Meridian was the rail capital of Mississippi.