Noteworthy railroad stations began brightening the American landscape by the 1870s. This issuance features five architectural gems that continue to play an important role in their communities: Tamaqua Station in Pennsylvania; Point of Rocks Station in Maryland; Main Street Station in Richmond, VA; Santa Fe Station in San Bernardino, CA; and Union Terminal in Cincinnati.

Just as the railroad represents progress and movement, railroad stations hold stories of industry and commerce, of migration and hope for the future, of reunions and goodbyes. They are gateways and crossroads where lives meet. All five of the stations featured on these stamps are listed in the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places.

Main Street Station, in Richmond, VA, calls to mind a French chateau, but one embraced by train tracks and a highway. Built by two of the railroads that once served the city — the east-west Chesapeake and Ohio and the north-south Seaboard Air Line — it opened in 1901 in a busy commercial district at the edge
of downtown. The Philadelphia firm of Wilson, Harris and Richards, specialists in railroad architecture, chose the Second Renaissance Revival style for the ornate building, giving it a steep roof and a six-story clock tower.

In the 1950s, the construction of the elevated interstate highway, nearly touching the station, made plain the automobile’s ascendancy. Yet both rail transportation and the station survived. Amtrak took over passenger service there in 1971 before moving to a new, suburban depot four years later. Main Street Station subsequently underwent major renovations and revival, briefly in the 1980s, as a shopping mall and then office space. Amtrak returned in 2003 and now shares the building, which received another massive makeover about 2017, with a visitors center and grand event space.