King Street Station

This article is about the railway station in Seattle. For the Metro station in Alexandria, Virginia, see King Street (Washington Metro).

Seattle
View from southeast, city skyline in background
General information
Location	303 S Jackson St. Seattle, Washington 98104
Owned by	City of Seattle
Line(s)	Amtrak Services:   Amtrak Cascades   Coast Starlight   Empire Builder Sound Transit Services:
Connections	Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach
Construction
Parking	Yes; paid
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Station code	SEA
History
Opened	May 1906
Rebuilt	ongoing
Passengers
2006	583,766 (Amtrak)  7.4%
Services
Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station Terminus Template:Amtrak lines Template:Amtrak stations toward Template:Amtrak stations Template:Amtrak stations toward Template:Amtrak stations Template:Amtrak lines Template:Amtrak stations toward Template:Amtrak stations Terminus Template:Amtrak lines Template:Amtrak stations toward Template:Amtrak stations Preceding station   Sounder Commuter Rail   Following station Terminus Template:SNDX lines Template:SNDX stations toward Template:SNDX stations Template:SNDX stations toward Template:SNDX stations Template:SNDX lines Terminus

King Street Station is a train station in Seattle, Washington. Located between S. King and S. Jackson Streets and 2nd and 4th Avenues S. in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle, the station was built from 1904 to 1906 by the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railway. Its 242 foot tower, modeled after Campanile di San Marco in Venice, Italy, made it the tallest building in Seattle at the time of its construction.

The station is served by Amtrak Cascades, Empire Builder, and Coast Starlight lines and by Sound Transit's Sounder commuter trains. In 2006, Amtrak ridership totaled 583,766 boardings. For the first 9 months of 2006, Sounder service boarded almost 1.2 million passengers at King Street Station. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Over the years, remodeling has concealed the station's grand interior. The ornate ceiling was covered by a lower one, the waiting room was walled off, marble was removed from support columns, a grand staircase linking S. Jackson Street with the west entrance was reduced to half its size, and an addition to the west side of the building was added which did not fit in with the building's architecture.

Plans are underway to restore the entire building to its former prominence. Cosmetic renovations began in 2003. In November 2006, the office of Seattle mayor Greg Nickels announced a preliminary agreement between the City of Seattle and BNSF Railway to the purchase the station for $1. The Seattle City Council formalized the agreement by passing legislation in December 2006. The purchase by the city will free up 19 million dollars of state and federal funds that can be used for restoration of the station. The city has ear-marked a further 10 million dollars for the restoration as part of a recently passed local transportation levy.

Gallery

• 
  View from the southeast with the Smith Tower under construction in the background, 1913
• 
  View from the west, 1913
• 
  View from southeast with old canopies, August 2002
• 
  View from the northeast with Qwest Field in the background
• 
  Interior view of renovated compass room.

External links

• Seattle, WA – Amtrak
• Seattle, WA – Station history at Great American Stations (Amtrak)
• King Street Station (National Register of Historic Places)
• King Street Station (Sound Transit)
• King Street Station (Washington State Department of Transportation)