Built in 1892-1894, this Richardsonian Romanesque Revival-style building was designed by Theodore Link for the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis to serve as a Union Station for multiple railroads that offered passenger service in the city at the time. The building consists of three sections, those being a head house, a large train shed, and a midway between the two. The head house is clad in granite with a rough-hewn rusticated base, rough-hewn belt coursing, hipped, gabled, and conical red terra cotta tile roofs, cylindrical turrets, a clock tower with an octagonal turret and pyramidal hipped roof, arched window bays on the second floor and the third floor, Chateauesque wall dormers, stone terraces with stone railings and metal lampposts flanking the main entrance at the exterior of the Grand Hall, a large suspended metal canopy at the main entrance, and buff brick and brown brick cladding on the rear and side facades. The interior of the head house originally housed a hotel, lunch room, ticketing facilities, and offices, as well as a large waiting room, known as the Grand Hall, which features a barrel vaulted ceiling with decorative stenciling and plasterwork, arches with decorative sculptural reliefs, arched bays on the walls, green tile wainscoting, stained glass windows, terazzo floors, around which are hallways with decorative ceilings, marble and tile wainscoting, decorative plasterwork, columns with decorative capitals, and decorative fireplace surrounds. The Train Shed is a large metal-frame structure with a barrel vault roof, skylights, and roof monitors, which originally housed multiple train platforms, and today houses multiple buildings that contain a hotel, aquarium, and mirror maze. The midway, between the two larger structures, features a metal truss roof with skylights, brick and drywall walls, marble floors, fountains, balconies, and window openings from the surrounding structures. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970, and was designated a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1981. The last passenger train service at the station was in 1978, after decades of declining ridership, and the building languished until 1985, when it was rehabilitated and renovated for adaptive reuse as a hotel, shopping mall, and food court under the direction of HOK and Conrad Schmitt Studios. The hotel today is part of the Curio Collection by Hilton, and the train shed houses the St. Louis Aquarium, a Mirror Maze, multiple restaurants, and a carousel.
