“When the Canadian National Railways System does a thing, it does it handsomely,” the pages of the Star said back in 1927, shortly before Edward, the Prince of Wales, and his entourage stepped off a train from Kingston to open Union Station’s latest incarnation.

“You build your stations like we build our cathedrals,” the Prince said during the ceremony. Union Station now sported a monumental coffer vault for its arrivals area, nicknamed the Great Hall, as well as a regal street-front adorned with massive limestone columns.

Alongside British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, and numerous other dignitaries, the Prince cut the tape. Crowds packed the station, inside and out.

Union Station had been expanded and rebuilt several times since December 1855, when two local railway companies began sharing a terminal at Front St. and Bay St. Torontonians initially loved it, but a population explosion throughout the late 19th century made subsequent stations obsolete.

Only after the Great Fire of 1904—which destroyed 14 acres of Toronto’s downtown industrial district—were railway companies able to buy unused land from the city to expand Union into the station it is today.

The Star published a photo the day before of the station’s first ticket—given to the Prince at the ceremony—which was “valid for all time” and “between all stations.”

“That seems inclusive enough,” quipped the caption.

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