W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 4-2014 To Polish or Demolish? : The Resurgence and Reimagining of American Rail Ryan R. Warsing College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the American Politics Commons, Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons, Infrastructure Commons, Transportation Commons, and the Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons Recommended Citation Warsing, Ryan R., "To Polish or Demolish? : The Resurgence and Reimagining of American Rail" (2014). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 6. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/6 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. To Polish or Demolish? The Resurgence and Reimagining of American Rail Ryan R. Warsing Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania A Thesis presented to the Undergraduate Faculty of the College of William and Mary in Candidacy for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts Government Department The College of William and Mary May, 2014 i ABSTRACT American railway stations stand tall among other buildings for reasons other than their physical size. These stations were born out of the monumental school that commanded buildings to serve higher purposes, to represent the ideals and aspirations of the people who built them. To accomplish this grand vision stations were built to artful extremes; bell towers, Doric columns, and waiting rooms the size of football fields were not uncommon features.