DC Union Station Lower Level Food Court Mystery Area

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

Can someone explain what/where/how to get to the lower level circled in red at the Food Court level?

I am only there once a year mostly and did not walk around the food court that much last visit last summer. But I did take some time to walk around all three levels, or so I thought. But I don't remember anything behind the food court. Did I miss a secret passage? Is there an outside entrance to the part that does not connect elsewhere to the main part of Union Station. Can someone give me the password?

Taking the Crescent in mid-June to visit the Zoo and then a short trip to Baltimore for a day for baseball. If I have to I will leave my wife in the Metro Lounge and explore (after I can some bread at the Potbelly to leave a trail.)

I pulled this off the map at https://www.unionstationdc.com/directory/

 

[joelkfla]

I didn't know this existed either, but the stairs and elevator appear to match up with ones at the extreme east end of the main floor (diagrammed below):


I think it may be separated from the food court by the run-thru tracks.

Seems like an odd place to put a Starbucks & Potbelly. Perhaps it can be accessed directly from the VRE platform.

 

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

Well at least it is not just me that was unaware of this area.

I hope this does not become like The Third Level by Jack Finney. https://archive.org/details/thirdlevel00finn/page/n15/mode/2up

 

[JamesWhitcombRiley]

It's all one space. The empty area is the stairway atrium. The large brownish grayish space to the left of the empty space is Walgreens.

Like most stations, the floor plans available are quite bad. The area at the top of the diagram has super interesting portals with gate numbers, unused, except as space behind the counters of fast food places. The portals would have run under the main stub-end platforms. Transverse to them is or was a service corridor, where there's a tiny elevator marked near the top of the diagram. That whole area is off-limits. The service corridor ran beyond the station westward under the street to the post office (or something).

 

[BlackDiamond]

It's all one space. The empty area is the stairway atrium. The large brownish grayish space to the left of the empty space is Walgreens.

Like most stations, the floor plans available are quite bad. The area at the top of the diagram has super interesting portals with gate numbers, unused, except as space behind the counters of fast food places. The portals would have run under the main stub-end platforms. Transverse to them is or was a service corridor, where there's a tiny elevator marked near the top of the diagram. That whole area is off-limits. The service corridor ran beyond the station westward under the street to the post office (or something).


View attachment 39328

I suspect the cartoon is from WW2 especially with the comment "is this travel essential?".

 

[AmtrakBlue]

It's all one space. The empty area is the stairway atrium. The large brownish grayish space to the left of the empty space is Walgreens.

The "stairway atrium” is just to the left of Walgreens. From the 1st floor you can see into the food court.

 

[John Bredin]

View attachment 39328

Wow, interesting! It's object proof from the time of something I'd read in multiple sources: that the railroads were so overcrowded and overwhelmed during WWII that many resolved not to travel by train again when they had the choice post-war. Nobody's *saying* "never again" in that picture but you can almost *feel* them thinking it.

I'd seen the wartime railroad ads reminding readers of how many troops were using the trains, or promising new equipment and comforts when the war would be over. But I'd never before seen an artifact of how unhappy the traveling public was, of the attitude those anodyne ads were meant to counter.

 

[railiner]

Wow, interesting! It's object proof from the time of something I'd read in multiple sources: that the railroads were so overcrowded and overwhelmed during WWII that many resolved not to travel by train again when they had the choice post-war. Nobody's *saying* "never again" in that picture but you can almost *feel* them thinking it.

I'd seen the wartime railroad ads reminding readers of how many troops were using the trains, or promising new equipment and comforts when the war would be over. But I'd never before seen an artifact of how unhappy the traveling public was, of the attitude those anodyne ads were meant to counter.

Just ask anyone still around that endured what my mother did in 1942. She traveled from New York City to Biloxi, MS standing, or sitting on her suitcase. And feeling fortunate to do so, to visit my father in his army training camp before he was shipped over to Europe for WWII.

 

[JamesWhitcombRiley]

I suspect the cartoon is from WW2 especially with the comment "is this travel essential?".

Yes, I think I found it at the Library of Congress website, a great source. (I was looking for floor plans!)

I also collected images from the now defunct https://history.amtrak.com/archives which was great, so many old promotional PDF's. The Wayback machine has all or some of it.

If you're wondering about the all-white cast in the cartoon, LOC pictures show African American service members conversing with white ones. Many people are familiar with WPA photos, but other federal departments collected excellent photos as well, and they tend to be at LOC.

From the Amtrak archives, oh there are so many. But here are Jackie Kennedy Onassis enjoying Amcafe vittles, and a travel agency scene (or maybe that office in Times Square!).





From LOC, more cartoons of wartime crowding and wartime accommodations.

 

[JamesWhitcombRiley]

All by Gordon Parks, a famous photographer. LOC calls the collection "Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information."













LOC calls the last one "Washington, D.C. Clerk and ticket seller searching for reservations at the Union Station." November 1942.

 

[MARC Rider]

I notice that even though they are inside the station, all of the men are wearing their hats. As a kid, I distinctly remember being trained to take off my hat when I went indoors. Either things changed between the 1940s and the early 1960s or the inside of a train station wasn't considered "indoors."

 

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

It's all one space. The empty area is the stairway atrium. The large brownish grayish space to the left of the empty space is Walgreens.

Like most stations, the floor plans available are quite bad. The area at the top of the diagram has super interesting portals with gate numbers, unused, except as space behind the counters of fast food places. The portals would have run under the main stub-end platforms. Transverse to them is or was a service corridor, where there's a tiny elevator marked near the top of the diagram. That whole area is off-limits. The service corridor ran beyond the station westward under the street to the post office (or something).

Any chance you could visit and make a video on a phone with you walking around and showing how the disconnected area in the map above is arrived at? I would watch it a ton of times just to let you monetize it on YouTube is that incentive helps.

I have Walgreens mapped out in my head but I just don't remember the other hallways and passages.

 

[allanorn]

I notice that even though they are inside the station, all of the men are wearing their hats. As a kid, I distinctly remember being trained to take off my hat when I went indoors. Either things changed between the 1940s and the early 1960s or the inside of a train station wasn't considered "indoors."

More likely it's the latter: it's acceptable to keep your hat on in places that would be akin to public streets. It's a lot easier to handle luggage and personal effects through a station with your hat on.

Stores are where it gets interesting; some say it's okay (except for elevators; that seems to be universally hat-off) and some say it's not. The line seems to be on how "public" a place is.

 

[hlcteacher]

very familiar with the work of Mr. Parks, it is iconic to us

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Nothing beyond Walgreens.
I suspect that other food court, or whatever it is, is in the building next to the station on that end.

 

[west point]

The final plans for Union Station track layouts has many different possibilities. That will probably cause nothing to be set in stone for the food court. One slight possibility published would have tracks & platforms under the upper-level tracks either terminating short of the food court or actually passing thru that location, So, IMO it will be several years before the final layouts of the food court even become apparent.

 

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

Nothing beyond Walgreens.
I suspect that other food court, or whatever it is, is in the building next to the station on that end.View attachment 39342View attachment 39343

I was watching a video this morning and the person recording on his phone walked over to the Walgreens. I could not make out the text on the door that can be seen in this picture but I am willing to bet good money it said "Not an Exit. Authoried Personnel Only" or something to that effect.

We shall have an answer in mid June when I visit. If the Cresent is on time I plant to drop the wife off in the lounge, and explore and ask around. Hotel does not have out room ready for a bit later so I should have some time. I need 20 minutes.

This forum needs a place to drop a name and stations list that one visits frequently and willing to help out on questions like this.

 

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

The final plans for Union Station track layouts has many different possibilities. That will probably cause nothing to be set in stone for the food court. One slight possibility published would have tracks & platforms under the upper-level tracks either terminating short of the food court or actually passing thru that location, So, IMO it will be several years before the final layouts of the food court even become apparent.

But the map I referenced is the layout right now and with the active and closed store locations.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the food court.

Using the current food court for train loading in some fashion as you mention and pushing the food court upstairs with a shop or two and just giving up on the "mall" aspect may make the best use of the current space. Food is good, and a variety of food is good, as is a pharmacy and souvenir shop for travelers. Shopping for high end clothes and such, may not be the top of the list for travelers.

 

[alanh]

Yeah, it looks like the area isn't accessible from the rest of the lower level. It would be behind the Chick-fil-A. You'd have to check the stairway or elevator from the ground floor.

 

[joelkfla]

I suspect that other food court, or whatever it is, is in the building next to the station on that end.

The ground level map extends well past the location of Walgreens. As I mentioned above, the stairs & elevator on the lower level map appear to line up with those near the eastern edge of the ground level map.

The lower level map doesn't show a food court there, just Potbelly, Starbucks, L'Occitane, & Hudson News scattered among a sea of unoccupied or non-public areas.

 

[joelkfla]

We shall have an answer in mid June when I visit. If the Cresent is on time I plant to drop the wife off in the lounge, and explore and ask around. Hotel does not have out room ready for a bit later so I should have some time. I need 20 minutes.

I would be interested to see if you can get to the elevator shown east of the Ticketed Passenger Waiting Room (formerly Uniqlo) and the Abro Collective. You might run into a less than welcoming homeless person; they seem to like to hang out in the less frequented areas of the station.

 

[allanorn]

We shall have an answer in mid June when I visit. If the Cresent is on time I plant to drop the wife off in the lounge, and explore and ask around. Hotel does not have out room ready for a bit later so I should have some time. I need 20 minutes.

This forum needs a place to drop a name and stations list that one visits frequently and willing to help out on questions like this.

I have an upcoming trip earlier than June so if I remember and have time I can also snoop around.

Agree that a separate sub-forum for stations would be a good idea. Maybe add a separate sub-forum for specific train discussion threads?

 

[MARC Rider]

OK, I used Union Station in my daily commute for almost 20 years, and I still pass through regularly. As far as I know, the lower level ends on the east side with the Chick Fil-A. The food court is under the footprint of the ticketing area, the Walgreens is under the footprint of the Great Hall. There used to be a movie theater on the west side under the Great Hall, I think that's not accessible to the public. There's a corridor on the west end that used to have a Hudson News, now closed, a post office, and a shoe repair/dry cleaners. That corridor leads to the Metro station. I have no idea what that lower level area east of the Chick Fil-A is, as far as I know, it's not accessible from the food court.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I would be interested to see if you can get to the elevator shown east of the Ticketed Passenger Waiting Room (formerly Uniqlo) and the Abro Collective. You might run into a less than welcoming homeless person; they seem to like to hang out in the less frequented areas of the station.

It’s boarded up at the end of the hall after the sitting area. The stairs do go up to the upper level.