Mail, Packages, and Baggage Galore

Integrated at a right angle to the Passenger Concourse, along Curtiss Street, is the Mail & Baggage Building. Five stories tall, 60 feet wide, and 350 feet long, it contained mail and baggage rooms on the ground floor, and offices above. It was built to process huge amounts of letters, packages, luggage, and trunks.

The street-level floor was divided, with the east half handling baggage. A luggage chute at the end transferred luggage from the Passenger Concourse to the Mail & Baggage Building, where it was processed. Baggage would then travel to the nearby Train Platforms via a U-shaped underground tunnel system that was 28 feet wide and a whopping 630 feet long. It would take the electric carts 10 minutes to make a round trip at 7 miles per hour. The bags were then put aboard the trains.

On the building’s western half, where mail was handled, are 15 concrete bays for delivery trucks. This street-level arrangement allowed for a quick transfer of baggage and packages between truck and railroad cars. The Mail & Baggage Building is owned by the Central Terminal Restoration Corp., which also owns the Main Terminal Building and the 12.5 acres surrounding these buildings.

Photo courtesy of Nancy J. Parisi

Social Documentation Photography.