the Great Overland Station

Great Overland Station opens in January 1927 after construction that began in 1925 and concludes the same year it is founded, embodying a Neoclassical Revival design that contemporary accounts praised as “one of the largest and finest stations west of the Missouri River.” Passenger service continues under Union Pacific and, later, Rock Island Lines until the final regular train departs in 1971, after which Union Pacific converts the building to office and customer‑service use. The railroad abandons the structure in 1989, and a fire damages its western portion in 1992; that same year the nonprofit Railroad Heritage, Inc. (formerly Topeka Railroad Days, Inc.) agrees to explore renovation. A comprehensive rehabilitation proceeds from 2000 through 2002, and the station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 1, 2002, emerging as a railroad heritage museum.