Railway Mail Service clerks load mail bags onto a Great Northern Railway Post Office car at the St. Paul Union Depot, 1949. Photograph by the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press.
The St Paul Union Depot Company was incorporated in 1879 by the railroads serving St. Paul. The company was created for the purpose of building and operating a single, jointly owned railroad-passenger terminal. The first depot opened in 1881 but was destroyed by fire in 1884 and then rebuilt. The depot received an addition in a remodeling project completed in 1901.