National Park Service recognizes Portland’s Union Station for its significance to Black history

On Aug. 31, 2026, the National Park Service approved an application by the City of Portland to formally recognize Union Station for its significant role in Portland's African American history. Originally listed in the National Register in 1975, the National Park Service has long recognized Union Station's notable 19th-century Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival-style design and its enduring role as Portland's primary passenger rail terminal. However, the original documentation completed for the listing omitted an important aspect of the station's story: the generations of Black Portlanders who worked at Union Station and on the railroads it served. The recently approved documentation recognizes Union Station's legacy as an important place in the development of Portland's Black community, as a source of economic opportunity for Black workers, and as a center of Black labor organizing. 

Significance in African American History

View full size image of Union Station on a sunny day. The large, multi-story brick building features a large clock tower that reads "Go by Train" at the top.

When Union Station opened in 1896, Portland's railroad industry was one of the few sectors of the local economy that offered significant employment opportunities to Black workers. African American men - and, in some cases, women - worked at Union Station and on the railroads as Pullman and chair-car porters, Redcaps, car cleaners, cooks, waiters, and other service workers. Although discriminatory employment practices largely excluded Black workers from management and many non-service positions, railroad employment offered relatively stable wages at a time when racial discrimination severely limited employment opportunities elsewhere. For much of Union Station's first 75 years, the railroad industry was the largest employer of Black Portlanders.

Employment at Union Station also influenced where Portland's early Black community developed. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Black railroad workers and their families settled near the station in inner Northwest Portland. As discriminatory real estate practices increasingly constrained where Black Portlanders could live, many families later moved across the Willamette River to Albina while maintaining their economic ties to the railroad. Railroad wages enabled some Black workers to purchase homes and establish greater economic security despite the discrimination they encountered in employment, housing and other aspects of daily life.

Union Station was also an important site of Black labor organizing during the first half of the 20th century. Beginning in the 1910s and continuing through the 1950s, Black railroad workers in Portland participated in national and local efforts to improve wages and working conditions and challenge discriminatory employment practices. For example, the local chapter of the Pullman Porters Benefit Association of America, along with a companion Ladies Auxiliary, contributed to broader efforts in the 1920s to secure greater economic opportunity and workplace protections for Black railroad employees. The updated National Register documentation recognizes these intertwined stories of employment, migration, community building, and labor activism as central to Union Station's historic significance.

"Union Station is deeply connected to Portland's early Black history, and it's an honor to help ensure future generations will know that part of the story," said Mariah Rocker, Public Programs Manager for Oregon Black Pioneers and one of the preparers of the new documentation.  

Union Station remains one of Portland's most recognizable landmarks and an active passenger rail hub. Owned by Prosper Portland and operated by Amtrak, the station is the oldest continuously operating major passenger terminal on the West Coast and continues to serve Amtrak passengers traveling throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. In addition to serving more than 586,000 passengers annually, the building contains offices and Wilf's Restaurant.

Underrepresented Historic Sites

Portland is home to over 700 places that have been listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Ranging from downtown office buildings to neighborhood theaters, the 700 listed places reflect a variety of histories, building types, geographies and time periods. However, the inventory of properties listed in the National Register is not representative of the full range of histories associated with Portland's diverse communities. In recent years, community organizations, historians and staff from the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability have collaborated to broaden the geographic, thematic and temporal scope of properties listed in the National Register including, specifically, African American historic sites.

For the updated National Register documentation for Union Station, the City of Portland partnered with Oregon Black Pioneers, a statewide African American historical society.

"Oregon Black Pioneers is so proud to have worked on this effort," said Zachary Stocks, Executive Director of Oregon Black Pioneers. "We are grateful that the Black history of Portland's Union Station will forever be included as a significant part of the story of this historic property."

"I'm grateful to live in a city that was willing to fund a big update to the old documentation, to show that the station's significance to Black history in Portland was equally, or maybe even more important as the other categories," said local historian Kristen Minor, another contributor to the application,

About the National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the nation's official list of buildings, structures, sites, objects, and districts significant to American history. In Oregon, nominations to the National Register are processed by the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, with final listing decisions made by the National Park Service. The Portland Historic Landmarks Commission and Oregon State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation unanimously recommended the updated Union Station National Register documentation.  

In Portland, properties listed in the National Register are included in the City's Historic Resource Inventory and are subject to applicable historic resource regulations in the Portland Zoning Code. National Register listing can also make qualifying properties eligible for rehabilitation incentives. Portland's Historic Resources Program, housed in the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, maintains the citywide Historic Resource Inventory and works with community partners to identify, document and preserve places that tell the many stories of Portland.  

Union Station today

In recent years, Prosper Portland has performed regular maintenance to maintain the facility's service capacity, safety standards, and structural integrity. Prosper Portland continues to work with Oregon Department of Transportation, Amtrak, and the Federal Railroad Administration to identify and apply for capital funding for a comprehensive renovation of the station, estimated to cost $250 million or more.

In the years to come, Prosper Portland and the City will continue to work with the FRA, Amtrak, and ODOT on the long-term stewardship of Union Station as a critical transportation asset for the region and state. The launch of the new Amtrak Ario Fleet and development of the adjacent Broadway Corridor site further reinforces Union Station's role as a treasured landmark and critical regional transportation hub.