This isn’t Union Station. I’m going to say the caption year is incorrect. Perhaps it’s 1936 and this is the Southern Pacific “Central Station” or even the “La Grande” station.

I doubt seriously that USC digital library mis-labeled this.

Union Station was set up to take all the rail companies’ trains; hence, Union Station. Southern Pacific would have had its own station. Can anybody say where this was located in the city?

The Southern Pacific Arcade Rail Depot, and later, Central Station was located at 5th & Alameda. (Partly the reason why Los Angeles’ historic Skid Row is located where it is.)

Arcade Depot existed here from 1888. In 1914 Southern Pacific built Central Station. It was demolished after 1939 when all train service to Los Angeles was consolidated with the opening of our beloved Union Station.

This photo is definitely NOT 1956. By the hats and dress in the photo, I’d place it mid-late 1930′s. (If it were 1940s it would likely be filled with uniformed GIs.)

Librarians are fallible too, but not often.

[...] long-gone Central Station on Alameda and 5th Street. (Recently featured in LA Metblogs Archiving Angeles.) The rail tracks running down parts of Alameda Street led to that major passenger station. And [...]