Union Station rose here in 1914 as a Beaux-Arts masterpiece and was, at its peak, the second busiest railroad station in the United States. The grand hall stretches 95 feet overhead, and the waiting room once held ten thousand people at a time. But this magnificent building is also the site of one of the most brazen crimes of the Prohibition era: the Kansas City Massacre.
On the morning of June 17, 1933, federal agents arrived here with escaped gangster Frank Nash in custody. Waiting for them in the parking lot were gunmen including the notorious Pretty Boy Floyd. What followed was thirty seconds of gunfire that left four lawmen dead along with Nash himself.
The attack was so shocking that J. Edgar Hoover used it to dramatically expand the power and reach of the FBI, which at the time could not even carry firearms. The bullet holes in the station's exterior were kept as a memorial for decades. After years of decline, Union Station was restored and reopened in 1999.
Today it houses Science City, restaurants, and one of the best public clock faces in the Midwest — but the history in these stones is far older and darker.