Why go
The Mizpah Arch explains how Denver once marked arrivals and departures at the station. The 1914 rebuilding explains the central section that followed the nineteenth-century depots. Together they give the building a more precise story than a single opening date.
The full story
The Mizpah Arch was dedicated in front of Union Station in 1906 as a threshold for people arriving in and leaving Denver. It first said “Welcome” on both sides. The side facing 17th Street later read “Mizpah,” a word used here as a farewell expressing a bond between people who were apart. The arch became a recognizable part of the station approach, but was removed in 1931 after it was judged a traffic hazard. Meanwhile, rail operations demanded more space. In 1912, the old Union Depot partnership gave way to the Denver Terminal Railway Company. The operators chose to replace the station’s central portion to handle growing passenger traffic. Denver architects Gove & Walsh designed the new Beaux-Arts center, which opened in 1914. The arch and the rebuilt center belong to the same era, but only the latter is part of the surviving station architecture.