The Cleveland Union Terminal Collection is the archives of the company that built the Terminal Tower, the union passenger station, the complex of office buildings, post office, department store and the infrastructure of tracks, bridges, signals, electrical catenary structures and yard facility buildings necessary to switch passenger coaches over from steam to electric and bring them in to the downtown area. This was a massive urban redevelopment project that foreshadowed the Rockefeller Center, in New York; gave Clevaland the third-tallest building in the world in 1930; and forever changed the face of Public Square and wide swaths of adjoining neighborhoods.

Exhibitions of CUT Collection materials on-line:

Cleveland Union Terminal Construction Photographs 1926-1929
This site documents the construction of the Cleveland Union Terminal (CUT) on the southwest quadrant of Public Square. The CUT was designed to be the union passenger station for railroad trains entering Cleveland after 1930. The project included a complex of office buildings, a hotel, department store, and post office; all capped by the Terminal Tower, then the tallest building between New York City and Chicago. The exhibit includes two collections of black and white photographs documenting the original conditions on this land before the neighborhoods and commercial districts were demolished to make way for for the Union Terminal project.

Cleveland Union Terminal Construction Film
A digital version of a 1928 film depicting foundation engineering work on the foundations of the Terminal Tower complex on Public Square, the Cuyahoga Viaduct and other projects for the Cleveland Union Terminal. This 16mm film, discovered at a New York area swap meet, was generously donated in 2005 to support historical research related to civil engineering and the architecture of Cleveland, Ohio.

Cleveland Union Station dedication book
When the Cleveland Union Terminal was formally opened in 1930, this souvenir dedication book was issued, explaining the new project and showing beautiful drawings of the facility.

About our Donors:

The Cleveland Union Terminal Collection was the gift of Mr. Gerald Adams, a life-long local railroad history enthusiast and collector who acquired the material in the early 1970s and through the efforts of Dr. Walter Leedy, donated it to Cleveland State University years later. Mr. Adams passed away in 2001, after several more substantial donations and many years of friendship.

In 1998, Mr. Robert Linsey very generously donated some 8,000 photographic images of the C.U.T. construction. The material had once been part of the C.U.T. archive before Mr. Adams purchased his portion.

These two gifts have reunited the major pieces of the historic Cleveland Union Terminal archives.