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.

The spectacular art deco Union Terminal opened in Cincinnati at the height of the Great Depression, in early 1933. The Ohio municipality had become an industrial and commercial center by 1900, as well as the country’s 10th largest city and a major gateway and transfer point for rail passengers traveling between much of the Midwest and the South. The New York architectural team of Alfred T. Fellheimer and Steward Wagner devised a design that mirrored the prosperity and optimism of the 1920s: a monumental half-dome rising from an enormous, raised plaza, with interior mosaics celebrating the city’s important industries. However, soon after construction kicked off in August 1929, Wall Street crashed. Union Terminal would be among the last great train stations built during the railroad era.

Designed for 216 trains per day, the station was welcoming just a handful by the time passenger service ended altogether in 1972. The city renovated and reopened it in 1990 as the Cincinnati Museum Center, and the next year Amtrak restored passenger rail service there.

“It’s an incredible honor for our historic Union Terminal to be immortalized on a U.S. postage stamp. Its history and architecture make it a National Historic Landmark, but its place in people’s lives make it an icon,” said Elizabeth Pierce, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Museum Center at historic Union Terminal. “Union Terminal has been an integral part of our community’s memories for nine decades and with the release of these commemorative stamps, we get to reintroduce the nation to our local treasure.”