The United States Postal Service held a first-day ceremony at the Cincinnati Union Terminal March 9 for the set of five Railroad Stations commemorative forever stamps.
The United States Postal Service held a first-day ceremony in Cincinnati March 9 for the set of five Railroad Stations commemorative forever stamps.
The ceremony began at 11 a.m. in an auditorium at the Cincinnati Union Terminal, the most recent of the five stations depicted on the stamps. Attendees nearly filled the 300-seat auditorium.
The master of ceremonies for the event was John Lomax, retired news anchor for the WKRC television station, who called the Union Terminal his favorite landmark.
DeMarco Reed, a student at Cincinnati’s School for Creative and Performing Arts, sang the national anthem at the start of the event. Several subsequent speakers remarked on Reed’s impressive rendition.
Elizabeth Pierce, CEO of the Cincinnati Museum Center housed in Union Terminal, gave a brief history of Union Terminal and spoke on its continued significance, adding that 2023 marks 90 years since the building’s opening. Hamilton County Commissioner president Alicia Reece then talked about how the building continues to connect people.
Before the digital unveiling in the official stamp dedication, Daniel Tangherlini of the U.S. Postal Service board of governors drew attention to Ohio’s recent train derailments in Springfield and East Palestine and said the “need to keep safety front and center” is a primary concern of USPS.
In his closing remarks, Tangherlini said that at the recent celebration for his father’s 99th birthday, his father mentioned that he traveled through Union Terminal on his way to Europe during World War II.
Union Terminal building historian Janice Forte spoke of veterans in her remarks on how the Union Terminal humanizes people, telling a story of how workers cleared a women’s bathing area in the station so a disabled WWII veteran could take an independent bath, as the men’s area only had showers.
Forte said Union Terminal is “more than a train station” and that “the Queen City’s crown lays on this building.”
Nicholas Cates, an architect from the company tasked with a recent years-long renovation of Union Terminal, echoed these sentiments when he discussed how he developed a long personal relationship with the building in his youth.
Cates was on site during the restoration, which he said was rare for an architect. “Working on this building was a grail project for me,” he said. In his closing, Cates said that the stamps might inspire future architects.
The Cincinnati Museum Center, located at 1301 Western Ave. in Cincinnati, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. Amtrak operates a line running through Union Terminal; more information on this route can be found the Amtrak website.
