Ogden’s Union Station celebrates centennial with time capsule, 2 days of activities
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- The 100th-anniversary celebration of Ogden’s Union Station on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, included a Union Station-themed drone show over the historic venue.
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- Museum intern Hunter Felix, left, and technician Chandra Van Leuven, right, fill the new Union Station time capsule as part of the station’s centennial celebration Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Ogden. The time capsule was fitted into the station’s cornerstone and will be opened in 2124.
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- Director of the Museums at Union Station Hope Eggett, left, and Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski, right, set the new time capsule into the Union Station cornerstone as part of the station’s centennial celebration Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. The time capsule will be opened in 2124.
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- Chamber Orchestra Ogden performs Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, at Union Station as part of the celebration of the station’s centennial.
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- Director of the Museums at Union Station Hope Eggett speaks at the time capsule ceremony in commemoration of Union Station’s centennial celebration Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Ogden.
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- The 100th-anniversary celebration of Ogden’s Union Station on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, included a Union Station-themed drone show over the historic venue.
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- Coppersmith Tim Nimtz seals a new 100-year time capsule as part of Union Station’s centennial celebration Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Ogden.
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- Members of the Grand Lodge of Utah Masons hold a rededication ceremony for the Union Station cornerstone after a new time capsule was set into it Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Ogden.
OGDEN — Union Station has now officially entered its second century of service.
After a year of buildup, the community finally had its opportunity to celebrate Union Station’s centennial with two days of celebration Friday and Saturday that included dignitary speeches, specially penned musical pieces, a time capsule, drone shows and a litany of other activities.
The 1924 iteration of Union Station was built to replace the first permanent station, which was lost to a fire in 1923.
The main celebration came Friday evening with a host of activities and a welcome address from Hope Eggett, director of the Museums at Union Station.
“Today, we are gathered here as a community to mark one century since this building was dedicated,” she said. “One hundred years ago, just like us today, Ogden’s residents gathered to mark a new era in Ogden’s connection to the outside world.”
She noted that there was no guarantee the structure now being celebrated would even come to fruition after the 1889-dedicated station burned down.
“In the 1920s, Ogden was in the golden years of railroad traffic, so a train station was inevitable, but this building that we’re celebrating today was not inevitable,” she said. “It was the work of Ogden’s citizens and its leaders highlighting Ogden’s strengths, determination and power as a place of community and economic connection.”
After a summary of the last 100 years of Ogden and Union Station history from historian Sarah Langsdon, Friday evening moved along with a time capsule ceremony. Earlier this year, a time capsule containing items from the 1924 cornerstone dedication — along with some items from a time capsule buried in the original station — was removed and opened. Several items from that time capsule were on display during Friday’s and Saturday’s festivities.
On Friday night, the intent was to fill another time capsule with items sought from around the community that will be opened in 2124.
Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski read aloud a letter that he had submitted to the people of Ogden in 2124 that would be included in the time capsule.
“I reflected deeply on the words that I’m about to share and I took the responsibility of being your mayor and choosing these words very carefully because I recognize the significance of the moment, but also the significance of the words and the significance of the time,” he said while introducing his letter to the future. “I recognize the significance of the people and the significance of the contributions all of you and so many more have made.”
Entries for the time capsule were sought from more than 30 community organizations, government entities, authors, poets and regular citizens. They include:
- A selection of “letters to the future” written by Ogden citizens and a list of babies born in Ogden in 2024.
- Copies of the Standard-Examiner from the day leading up to the time capsule ceremony.
- Submissions from Ogden High School and Ben Lomond High School.
- Items from Weber State University, which despite being in operation in 1924 as Weber College, had no items placed in the 1924 time capsule.
- A copy of the book “Misplacing Ogden, UT” by Pepper Glass.
- A brochure for Ogden Pride.
- A submission from NAACP Ogden.
- Documents from various Ogden City departments.
Following the filling of the time capsule, the copper box was sealed and waterproofed by coppersmith Tim Nimtz and placed into the station’s cornerstone. This included a cornerstone rededication ceremony conducted by the Grand Lodge of Utah Masons.
After the time capsule was laid into the stone and the rededication ceremony concluded, Chamber Orchestra Ogden presented a concert in the Browning Theatre, which included a piece called “Union on 25th” that was penned by composer Alfonso Tenreiro for the occasion of Union Station’s centennial.
Celebrations continued Saturday with big band music, self-guided tours of the museums and other family activities. Both days also concluded with a drone show.
Eggett said the outpouring of love and support from the community for the station’s 100th anniversary has been overwhelming.
“At every twist and turn in this journey that we started well over a year ago — two years ago, probably — we’ve had as much love and support from our community as we could’ve wanted,” she said. “We’ve had so many people reach out and volunteer to help us with our activities, to contribute to really sharing our shared identity of celebrating Ogden.”
She said an effort was made to represent more of Ogden and its people in the new time capsule.
“When we opened our time capsule in May of this year, it was an absolutely phenomenal experience,” she said. “But there was a consistent theme I heard from everybody who attended — they wished that they had seen themselves represented in the time capsule. That’s something that I took very, very seriously in my responsibility of planning the items that were going in this time capsule and in this cornerstone rededication ceremony.”
How the bicentennial of Ogden’s Union Station will be celebrated in in 2124 is yet to be known. While plans in the relative short term are to explore bringing rail service back to the station via the Utah Transit Authority’s FrontRunner train and possibly Amtrak, it is equally unclear if the station will be serving some of its original purpose in 2124. How the collections of the Museums at Union Station will be displayed, interpreted, expanded and supplemented in the next century also are yet to be determined.
But Eggett hopes that Union Station will remain to the city over the next 100 years what it has been for the past century.
“I hope that Union Station remains the heart of Ogden,” she said. “Every time I’ve answered a question about what Union Station is this year, I’ve talked a lot about how it is a community gathering space. Back ever sicne it was dedicated in 1924, it’s seen people come together and celebrate together and learn a lot more about how to get along as citizens. And I hope that, over the next 100 years, it continues to serve as the heart of Ogden in bringing people together in our shared values, our shared identities and helping us to make our city a better place.”
