Union Station History and Architecture Tour

To sign up for this FREE event: All you need to do is arrive at Traxx Bar in Union Station by 7:00 pm. The tour will leave promptly at 7:00 pm and will take approximately 45-60 minutes.

ABOUT THIS EVENT: For three days, May 3-5, 1939, Angelenos celebrated the long awaited opening of Union Station with parades, performances, and speeches. This week marks the station’s 73rd anniversary, so please join the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles for Cocktails in Historic Places and a tour of a much loved Los Angeles landmark.

Union Station, known as the “Last Great Train Station”, was originally the site of Los Angeles’ Chinatown. For many years Chinatown was considered to be a hot bed of sin, and there had been numerous political and social campaigns to demolish it. Drug busts, prostitution, white slavery, and tales of underground opium dens frightened, and titillated, the residents of the City of Angels.

After nearly two decades of court battles among the City of Los Angeles, the railroads, and the Chinese residents, Union Station was constructed on a foundation strong enough to withstand powerful earthquakes; but, it was also built on a foundation of shady real estate deals and political corruption.

Please join the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles for Cocktails in Historic Places in Traxx Bar on Friday, May 4, 2012 at 6 pm. At 7 pm we will gather for an informal tour which will include a brief history of the station, and its architecture, led by Joan Renner, LAVA member and ADSLA board member.