In 1909 the Houston Belt and Terminal Railway Company hired Warren and Wetmore to design a new union station. Several buildings had to be torn down to make room, including a house and a synagogue.
It was meant to cost $1 million, and it ended up costing about five times that. The outside is granite, limestone and terracotta, and the inside used a lot of marble. It was dedicated in March 1911, and two more floors were added the next year.
At the time Houston, with seventeen railways, was considered the main railroad hub of the southern United States. Today the building is a cornerstone of the baseball park, and Houston's Amtrak station has replaced it.