text:
Cincinnati Union Terminal

Cincinnati Union Terminal is an intercity train station and museum center in the Queensgate neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Commonly abbreviated as CUT, or by its Amtrak station code, CIN, the terminal is served by Amtrak's Cardinal line, passing through Cincinnati three times weekly. The building's largest tenant is the Cincinnati Museum Center, comprising the Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History & Science, Duke Energy Children's Museum, the Cincinnati History Library and Archives, and an Omnimax theater.

Union Terminal's distinctive architecture, interior design, and history have earned it several landmark designations, including as a National Historic Landmark. Its Art Deco design incorporates several contemporaneous works of art, including two of the Winold Reiss industrial murals, a set of sixteen mosaic murals depicting Cincinnati industry commissioned for the terminal in 1931. The main space in the facility, the Rotunda, has two enormous mosaic murals designed by Reiss. Taxi and bus driveways leading to and from the Rotunda are now used as museum space. The now-demolished train concourse held all 16 of Reiss's industrial murals, along with other art and design features.

The Cincinnati Union Terminal Company was created in 1927 to build a union station to replace five local stations used by seven railroads. Construction, which lasted from 1928 to 1933, included the creation of viaducts, mail and express buildings, and utility structures: a power plant, water treatment facility, and roundhouse. Six of the railroads terminated at the station, which they jointly owned, while the Baltimore and Ohio operated through services.

Initially underused, the terminal saw traffic grow through World War II, then decline over the following four decades. Several attractions were mounted over the years to supplement declining revenues. Train service ended in 1972, and Amtrak moved service to a smaller station nearby. The terminal was largely dormant from 1972 to 1980; during this time, its platforms and train concourse were demolished. In 1980, the Land of Oz shopping mall was constructed inside the station; it operated until 1985. In the late 1980s, two Cincinnati museums merged and renovated the terminal, which reopened in 1990 as the Cincinnati Museum Center. Amtrak returned to the terminal in 1991, resuming its role as an intercity train station. A two-year, $228 million renovation was completed in 2018.

Services
The station is served by Amtrak's Cardinal line, operating every other day, three times per week. The service runs between Chicago and New York City; trains to Chicago arrive at 1:31 a.m. and trains to New York arrive at 3:17 a.m., each departing 10 minutes later.

Likely as a result of the extreme late-night schedule, ridership is among the lowest of Amtrak stations in Ohio and among the lowest for any station serving a metropolitan area of at least two million people. Union Terminal saw 11,862 boardings and alightings in 2016, 11,144 in 2017, 8,315 in 2018, 8,641 in 2019, 5,451 in 2020 and 7,164 in 2021. Ohio's total ridership for 2019 was 132,000 people.

The terminal is connected to Route 49 of Metro, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority's bus system, which also connects to downtown Cincinnati, North Fairmount, and English Woods. The last bus of the night arrives at the terminal at 12:40 a.m., and the first bus in the morning arrives at 4:55 a.m.

Former services
The terminal opened with service from seven railroads: the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; Chesapeake and Ohio Railway; Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway; Louisville and Nashville Railroad; Norfolk and Western Railway; Pennsylvania Railroad; and the Southern Railway.

Amtrak maintained two services here until moving to the Cincinnati River Road station in 1972, where Amtrak services remained until returning to Union Terminal in 1991.

Operations
The facility, grounds, and parking lot are owned by the City of Cincinnati, while the tracks and platforms are owned by the freight railroad company CSX Transportation. The city leases the building primarily for Amtrak use and the Cincinnati Museum Center, a collection of five entities:
 * Cincinnati History Museum
 * Museum of Natural History & Science
 * Robert D. Lindner Family Omnimax Theater
 * Cincinnati History Library and Archives
 * Duke Energy Children's Museum

The terminal also houses the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center, several foodservice operations, and event space.

Visitor services
All areas of the museum center are wheelchair-accessible. The Amtrak station is also accessible and ADA compliant. The main information desk is used for ticketing, and has daily schedules, museum maps, and coat checking, and has information on special events and the building's lost and found items. The Museum of Natural History operates two gift shops: one adjacent to the rotunda and a children's gift shop in the museum wing. The History Library operates a separate shop adjacent to the rotunda.

There are three dining rooms on the main concourse, two on the lower level, a retail shop, and other rotating operations. The main level operation Cup and Pint serves pizzas, coffee, and draft beer, while Nourish 513 serves sandwiches, salads, and fast food. The Rookwood tea room is operating as a Graeter's ice cream location.

In 2014, the museum center and the Google Cultural Institute created a virtual tour of the museum using Google Street View, with about 65 works of art and their descriptive labels viewable.

Architects and Art Deco design
The station building was designed by the firm Fellheimer & Wagner, and is considered the firm's magnum opus. Fellheimer was known for designing train stations; he was lead architect for Grand Central Terminal (1903–1913). The large and busy firm gave the project design to Roland A. Wank, a younger employee.

Wank's original plan was traditional and featured Gothic architecture: large arches, vaulted ceilings, and conventional benches in long rows. In 1930, while initial construction took place, the terminal company persuaded the architects to hire Paul Philippe Cret as a design consultant. In 1931–32, Cret altered the design aesthetic: thereafter, the terminal and its supporting buildings used modern architecture (later known as Art Deco), even in places not visible or open to the public. The revised designs were approved as cheaper than the intricate Gothic designs, and more cheerful and stimulating with their colorful interiors than previous designs.

Location, layout, and exterior
Cincinnati Union Terminal is located in the Queensgate neighborhood, created in the mid-20th century; originally it was part of the West End. The location is north of the Ohio River and west of downtown Cincinnati. The terminal lies directly east of the Gest Street rail yard, and directly west of an expansive lawn and parking lot, formerly Lincoln Park. The terminal lies at the western end of Ezzard Park Drive (named Lincoln Park Drive from 1935 to 1976, after the park, and subsequently named for Cincinnati resident Ezzard Charles). The eastern end of Ezzard Park Drive abuts Cincinnati Music Hall, another icon of Cincinnati, visible from the terminal's front terrace. The complex's northern boundary is Kenner Street, its southern is Hopkins Street, its western is the Gest Street rail yard, and its eastern boundary is Western Avenue (formerly Freeman Avenue).

The terminal complex opened in 1933 with 22 buildings, 287 acre, and 94 mi of track. 130 acres were occupied by the terminal and its surrounding grounds, while 157 acres were occupied by supporting railroad facilities. The station building in total has 504000 sqft.

The building has a roughly T-shaped structure surmounted by its half-dome. It was built with five floors, but only two primary levels: the track level, and the station floor, placed above the tracks for simplicity of arrangement and for more architectural opportunities. The building lies east of the tracks, facing Downtown Cincinnati. The building is aligned on a central axis: the east lawn, the terrace, the main concourse, the checking lobby, and finally the train concourse built over the tracks, leading to the station's platforms. The station was considered to have a "pull-through" design, less common though more efficient than the "head-house" style. Another example of a pull-through station is Kansas City Union Station, while Grand Central Terminal is a head-house-style terminal. Carroll Meeks, a professor of architecture and art history at Yale University, compared its layout to a half funnel laid out on the ground, with the wide end collecting passengers and the narrow end ejecting them out onto the platforms.

Cincinnati Union Terminal had a capacity of 216 trains per day, 108 in and 108 out, carrying 17,000 passengers. Three concentric lanes of traffic were included in the design of the building, carrying traffic through enclosed ramps to a space beneath the main rotunda of the building, with ramps again for departure. One lane was for cars and taxis, one for buses, and one (never used) for streetcars. Similar to Buffalo Central Terminal, Union Terminal used a system of ramps for passengers to access the 1600 ft platforms below the concourse.

The building's architecture and design received mostly positive acclaim, though even in 1933 it was seen as possibly the last grand intercity train station built. Carroll Meeks described the passenger's route from the tracks up to the concourse and back down again to vehicle ramps as relatively complicated and arduous.

Grounds east of the terminal
The space to the east of the station consists of a terrace and fountain to the west and parking lots around a narrow lawn to the east.

The terminal lawn originally measured 1400x500 ft, and gently carries broad driveways upward to the terminal. The lawn was originally Lincoln Park, a lush city park. It was remodeled during the terminal's construction to have simpler decorative landscaping, though it retained the name of Lincoln Park. The relandscaping included elms and sycamore tree borders, with flower beds in the central strip. The central strip is still intact, but the portions to its north and south became parking lots in 1980.

The west end of the lawn has an ornamental terrace with steps, hedges, and a central fountain. The terrace also features two groups of four pylons, supporting concealed flood lights. Behind the terrace, a driveway curves around the half oval to the building's entranceway. Dalton Avenue runs through a tunnel beneath the plaza. The fountain cascades water down a set of scalloped tiers into a pool below. It was constructed of concrete and green terrazzo, and was designed by Fellheimer & Wagner.

The grounds also feature a large Art Deco sign, not original to the building. For a time, the sign read "Cincinnati Museum Center", though during the extensive renovation in 2018, it was replaced with the current sign, reading "Cincinnati Union Terminal".

Main facade
The main facade, 500 ft wide in total, is the only portion visible from the plaza approach, and it is the building's most striking exterior feature. The only arriving passenger entry is from the east side of the terminal, due to rail lines to its north, south, and west. The central portion is semicircular, with a half-circle of frosted windows divided vertically by flat limestone mullions, and a long polished aluminum and glass marquee lies directly beneath the windows. Beneath this are nine aluminum-faced doors leading to a marble vestibule and the rotunda. The arch ends with a series of stepped gables. The domed section is flanked by two symmetrical wings, lower in profile, each of which curves 90 degrees to the east. These curve around the driveway, which was only used for private cars. The north wing carried three lanes of traffic beneath the rotunda and out the south wing; the inner for taxicabs, the middle for buses, and the outer lane was intended for Cincinnati's streetcar system, though it was never used. The taxi and bus drives connected to the main driveway; the streetcar drive utilized separate ramps beginning at Kenner Street and ending at Hopkins Street. In 1956, architectural historian Caroll Meeks referred to the terminal's vehicular traffic system as the most elaborate in any modern station.

The main facade's central arch was inspired by Helsinki Central Station in Helsinki, Finland, which Fellheimer visited in 1927. The terminal was also reported as resembling Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi railway station in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Two of the facade's mullions support a large central clock. It measures 18 ft in diameter and weighs 5 tons; the hour and minute hands are 6'4" and 7'4" respectively. There are 52 panes of glass; 24 are red-tinted, while 28 are amber. It is unknown who designed it, though the Cincinnati Watch Company believes it was most likely Paul Cret. It was constructed by the Seth Thomas Clock Company. The clock is original to the terminal, and was synchronized with all others in the terminal with a system created by IBM. Neon tubing on the aluminum hour and minute hands is also original, lighting them in an orange-red hue. The hands were originally skeleton hands, with a hollow center. Later on, the hands were modified and filled in. The 2016-2018 renovation restored the clock, and returned the clock hands to their original appearance.

The relatively unornamented facade has two bas-relief carvings by Maxfield Keck on buttresses at the north and south ends of the arch. The north carving represents transportation, while the south represents commerce.

 * Gallery

Exterior materials
The building has a steel frame, masonry curtain walls, and concrete floors and roof slabs.

The entire east facade and the outer walls of the entrance drives are faced with a light, fine-grained Indiana limestone, with a low granite base. The low walls and pylons in front of the building are made of the same limestone. Fossils of sea lilies, bryozoans, brachiopods, snails, and other organisms can be seen in the stone. The entranceway under the marquise features Morton Gneiss, a Cold Spring dark rainbow granite. Morton Gneiss was popular in American Art Deco architecture at the time. The fountain utilizes pink porphyritic granite. The side and rear walls of the building utilize light buff brick. The dome was originally covered with terra cotta, though it was replaced with aluminum sheathing in 1945. The entrance arcades are lined with cream-colored terra cotta.

Related structures
The terminal was built along with several auxiliary buildings, on the north side of the station, also designed in the Art Deco style. They were designed by Edgar D. Tyler, a staff architect for Fellheimer & Wagner, as well as a former student of Paul Cret.

The mail handling building and express terminals were on the east side of the terminal property, easily accessible to the city's downtown, and directly to the west and north of the Dalton Avenue U.S. Post Office, completed around 1933 and still standing.

The mail building, 173x178 ft, was a steel-frame, flat-roofed enclosure for chutes and conveyor belts. The building was also connected to the post office through conveyor belts, delivering city mail separate from transfer mail; the post office in turn delivered outgoing mail split between northern and southern railways. The mail building had two platforms each with two conveyors and serving two tracks, one platform for southbound mail and one for northbound mail.

The express terminal was 742 ft long, ranging from 40-136 ft wide. The building was two stories tall, steel-framed, with brick walls and concrete floors and roofs. The second floor was used for offices and storage. It also included platforms with canopies.

The terminal complex also included a roundhouse, washing platform, cinder pit, fire-lighting stations, coaling station, two electric substations, a power plant, and a water treatment plant. The roundhouse had 20 indoor stalls, 17 outdoor spaces, and a turntable with a 115 ft diameter. The power plant had a 250-foot chimney and a set of three boilers. The plant's basement housed a water treatment plant, which used zeolite to purify city water, softening the water.

Interior layout and architecture
Contrasting with the exterior's simple color scheme, the building's interior is characterized by bright, warm colors, intensified with natural light in daytime and with illumination at night. These colors and lighting contrast with the interior's simple form and detail. Most of the interior metal work is made of aluminum, including doors, signs, ticket grills, and light fixtures.

The floor was consistently patterned in the rotunda, through the checking lobby, and into and through the train concourse. The pattern was terrazzo divided by brass strips into bands and panels in shades of gray and rose. The contrasting flooring was laid out in way that guided traffic to and from the main entrance and platforms.

All interior spaces were designed without visible heating or cooling units. Hot air would be vented into the train concourse behind light fixtures. The ramps were also heated, to prevent drafts of cold air from entering the concourse. The rotunda's vestibules were also heated, and the central space was indirectly heated: the space between the inner plaster dome and outer cement dome was heated, as well as the space between the east facade's two panes of glass. This would surround the rotunda with warm air, insulating it from the cold.

Rotunda
The main entrance leads to a small marble vestibule, which leads to the terminal's main concourse, the Rotunda. It is a semi-circular space measuring 176 ft wide, 125 ft deep, and 106 ft tall. The arched front of the building forms the east wall of the rotunda; the other interior walls have a high dado clad in red and yellow Verona marble, with a dark red marble trim of Tennessee marble at the base, and molded plaster used above the dado and up to the ceiling. The room's marble is 150 million years old, containing numerous fossilized skeletons. Approximately 24 of these fossils are visible in the walls of the Rotunda. Sound-absorbing plaster covers the dome ceiling, which has yellow and orange plaster banded with silver strips. The room is designed with Art Deco details like the other original portions of the building. It was designed with colorful pastels, and features colorful mosaic murals by Winold Reiss.

The rotunda's semi-circular central information desk and ticket kiosk originally served as a newsstand and tobacco shop, and was originally the only structure in the rotunda. It features a decorative sphere and a digital clock, possibly the first digital clock installed in a public space. The clock is no longer functioning.

The northern curved wall housed 18 ticket windows, while the southern curved wall had a soda fountain, telegraph counter, drug store, and the entrance to the terminal's two dining rooms. The east wall included four shops, a travel bureau, the Rookwood Tea Room, and a small theater. The shops were for men's apparel, women's apparel, books, and toys. The toy shop had star and moon light fixtures that reflected colors from the ceiling onto the toys, which were depicted in patterns on the shop's floor.

The rotunda features a seemingly unlikely whispering gallery. The east wall's arch around its windows features decorated flues, elements typical in Art Deco design. The flues act as sound channels, allowing people 30 meters apart at the base of each arch, by symmetrical drinking fountains, to hold a private conversation with ease.

The Rotunda features the largest semi-dome in the western hemisphere, measuring 180 ft wide and 106 ft high (about ten stories in height). It was considered the largest in the world until 1973, when the Sydney Opera House was built.

Train concourse
The train concourse, demolished in 1974, measured 79x410 ft. It lay directly above the railroad tracks, and had doors on its north and south sides, eight on each side. The sixteen gates each led to stairs and ramps to the platforms below. The concourse was well-lit with tall windows throughout. The room carried on the same marble pattern of the rotunda walls, and had a segmental arch ceiling 36 feet, 8.5 inches above the floor at the crown, painted in shades of yellow from pale lemon to orange. The room was used as a waiting area, though it lacked traditional wooden benches. Instead it had American Oak Leather-upholstered settees and chairs in aluminum frames, placed in twelve concentric groups of 46 seats, each around a small, round teakwood table. A conductors' visa counter was installed at the east end of the concourse at its longitudinal center. The room featured the Winold Reiss industrial murals, commissioned for the space, as well as a large map mural, the only artwork original to the terminal that was demolished. The concourse's west end had a large clock, also saved from demolition. The clock was moved to an outdoor domed display in the Town Center parking garage, near Cincinnati Music Hall. In 2018, workers removed the clock from the garage and delivered it to the Museum Center, which plans to assess the clock's condition and decide where to display it. The entrance to the concourse had two train bulletin boards; a departure chalkboard at the north side and an arrivals chalkboard at the south side. One Reiss mural decorated the space above each board: a departing train above the departures and an arriving train above the arrivals.

Platforms and tracks
The terminal was built with eight platforms and sixteen platform tracks, with room for expansion to 22 tracks. The platforms and tracks ran north to south, partially beneath the train concourse. The platforms were 28 ft wide, unusual in train station design, and 1580 ft long, and able to be extended to 2,400 feet. They had concrete bases, covered with canopies. The support columns were 80 feet apart, also noted as unusual. The canopies were of painted steel; roofing was by the Philip Carey Company.

Parking tracks were installed between the platform tracks, as there was sufficient room between the platforms. These tracks allowed for sleeping cars and express cars to be exchanged.

Baggage facilities
The baggage level occupied space directly beneath the checking lobby and train concourse. The space also utilized a drive-through loading platform, where cars would enter the north side of the baggage level, drop off luggage on the loading platform, and exit the south side. Trucking ramps were located directly beneath the train concourse's northern passenger ramps, and a passageway connected the facility to the mail handling building.

Tower A
Tower A, a former signal tower, is open to the public as a railroad exhibit once per year. The tower is located on the fourth and fifth floors at the east end of the station, with sets of windows on the north, east, and south. It overlooks the Gest Street rail yard as well as a mile north and south, including part of Queensgate Yard. The room was noise-insulated with cork linoleum and Celotex due to its once-frequent exposure to passenger trains. The tower featured a large electro-pneumatic interlocking machine, built by the Union Switch & Signal Company. The machine had 187 levers, making it the largest interlocking machine in service at the time. Light bulbs underneath each switch indicated information. Above the machine was an illuminated track model.

From 1989 to 2018, the Cincinnati Railroad Club occupied the space, offering public access to the space and operating a museum for the rail yard and station's innovative interlocking system. The club had been meeting in the terminal since 1938. In 1989, the club refurbished the space, installed exhibits there, and staffed it on weekends with volunteers beginning in 1991. Since the terminal's 2018 renovation, the club was required to pay rent, something that was mandatory for tax credits for the renovation. The club could not afford the rent terms and thus vacated the space. In late 2019, the museum center opened the space for a few weeks for the holiday season, staffed by Cincinnati Railroad Club volunteers. The club plans to raise money to have the space open more often in the next five years.

Foodservice spaces
The Rookwood tea room is decorated entirely in Rookwood Pottery tiles. It is located directly off of the Rotunda, and is currently a Graeter's ice cream parlor. The room opened in 1933 as a parlor for tea, coffee, and light snacks. It operated as a USO center during World War II, and afterward was used for different functions, including foodservice and as a game room. In 1980, the room became a GD Ritzy's ice cream and chili parlor. When the museum center opened, the space became a United Dairy Farmers ice cream shop. In December 2018, the room became a Graeter's parlor. The room was designed by William E. Hentschel of the Rookwood Pottery Company, and utilized mint green, pale gray, and mauve tiles. The room has partitioned seating, and designs with dragonflies and flowers.

The south side of the main level has a kitchen, dining room, and lunchroom. The lunchroom, now known as the Losantiville Dining Room, has relatively high yellow Verona marble walls, with a band of green above it, and a chocolate-brown ceiling. The countertops used Vermont verd antique; stools were aluminum and red leather. The lunchroom featured 22 murals, restored in the 2018 renovation; they had been removed around the 1980s to prevent further damage. The ceiling mural in the room's vestibule was also cleaned, and new green terrazzo was installed in the floor to show where the serpentine lunch counters were. The dining room had a large ceiling mural depicting a map of Cincinnati and neighboring parts of Kentucky. The kitchen and dining room were initially separated by a very early iteration of an automatic door.

Other interior spaces
A small 118-seat theater is at the entrance of the terminal. It reopened around 1991 as the Scripps Howard Newsreel Theater, showing free features, newsreels, and a video history of the terminal. It uses white and black marble walls, with linoleum carvings on either side of the main screen. It originally had a mulberry-color carpet. In the 2016-2018 renovation, the original seats were cleaned and repaired, and a new projector and sound system was installed.

The north side of the main level included terminal company offices, also present in spaces above the checking lobby.

The men's and women's waiting rooms both used distinctive marbles, and featured wainscoting, with the walls above made of plywood or flexwood showing the natural grain, or in designs. The men's room walls feature a railroad motif, using zebrawood, walnut, and holly; the women's lounge had panels of zebra and madrone wood. The rooms featured aluminum and leather-backed seats. Both waiting rooms had connecting bathrooms with marble walls and several showers.

The checking lobby is a space behind the rotunda. It was originally an intermediate lobby between the rotunda and the train concourse, and served passengers with baggage checking on the north side and parcel checking on the south side. The space also included or led to restrooms, telephone booths, a shoeshine room, barber shop, newsstand, train bulletins, and a soda fountain. The upper portion of the walls are decorated with two Reiss murals depicting the terminal's construction and opening.

The president's office is circular, with flexwood walls and cork floors. A design above the doorway has a depiction of Union Terminal created from inlaid wood, including a working electric clock. The room also has a Kasota stone fireplace, above which lies a map of the United States using inlaid wood; each wood panel is indigenous to the state it depicts.

The terminal also opened with a drug store, beauty parlor, barber shop, men's clothing store, gift shop, and a small hospital.

 * Original features

Artwork
Cincinnati Union Terminal features works of art throughout its interior spaces. The works of art originally included 23 mosaic murals, totaling 18150 sqft, making it the largest collection of secular mosaics in the United States in 1933.

The terminal's interior features numerous works by German-American artist Winold Reiss. Reiss was commissioned to design and create two large mosaic murals depicting the history of Cincinnati and history of the United States for the rotunda, two murals for the baggage checking lobby, two murals for the departing and arriving train boards, 16 smaller murals for the train concourse representing local industries, and a large world map mural. Reiss spent roughly two years in the design and creation of the murals.

The murals are often compared to works of the Federal Art Project, sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, however the Reiss murals predate the Federal Art Project by several years.

Rotunda murals
The rotunda murals measure 105x22 ft; when created they were among the largest works of art in the US. The south mural (on the left side of the rotunda from the entrance) depicts US history, while the north mural (on the right side of the rotunda) depicts the history of the city of Cincinnati. Reiss explained that the south mural symbolizes the country's development from Native American inhabitance to the late industrial era, with a history of transportation in the background. The mural showed Native Americans of the Blackfoot Confederacy, a group that Reiss himself joined for months in 1920 and painted for years following. The pioneer family depicted symbolizes "the courage and fortitude of the man; the loyalty and love of the mother; the wondering romance of the past and future America in the eyes of the boy".

The Cincinnati mural, on the north side of the rotunda, is set in the Ohio River Valley. The figures represent exploration, agricultural development, shipbuilding, and industry. Cincinnati's Fort Washington is shown in the background at the top right, while the evolution of Ohio River shipping and Cincinnati in the 1930s fills the rest of the background. Above the 1930s skyline is Reiss' imagination of the future city. The only prominent figure is Arthur St. Clair, who named Cincinnati, at the third from the right. The other figures are deliberately meant to be common people. Reiss used family members (including sons and a brother), local construction workers, and studio models for the mural. The African American laborers were drawn from Union Terminal construction workers, while the Blackfeet natives were copied from sketches Reiss made earlier while visiting the group. One of Reiss's studies for the mural is displayed in the mezzanine level of the Cincinnati History Museum.

World map mural
The world map mural was 70x16 ft, weighing 22.4 tons. It included five decorative clocks made of tile, together representing five of the United States's time zones: Pacific, Mountain, Central, Eastern, and Atlantic. The United States was depicted in the center, divided into the time zones. Major cities were spelled out in the terminal's Art Deco typeface; Cincinnati was spelled largest. The mural also included two Nicolosi globular projections of the world, with the Americas on the left side and Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia on the right. The mural was demolished along with the train concourse in 1974; due to its size, the cost of saving it was estimated at $100,000 ($ in ). All of the clocks remain, except the Eastern time clock.

The original Winold Reiss study for the mural survives, created in 1931-32 and measuring 5 ft by 19 ft. The study is a work in progress, showing the process and decisions taken to complete the work; it was not completed as his other studies were. The painting was one of several offered as a donation from a private collector to the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University. Chief Curator Ellen Avril, a Cincinnati native, recognized the work and recommended donating it to the Cincinnati Museum Center instead. The donation to the Cincinnati Museum Center was accepted in 2013 and the mural was moved to the entrance to the Cincinnati History Museum. In 2014, Avril assisted with another donation to the terminal: seven Winold Reiss oil paintings of different people, four are figures in the south mural of the rotunda; three are figures in the south mural of the former baggage checking lobby.

Industrial murals

Reiss also created a set of sixteen murals depicting Cincinnati industries, created for the train concourse. Since the concourse's demolition in 1974, fourteen of the works have been moved numerous times. Currently five of these murals are at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and nine are at the Duke Energy Convention Center. Two of the murals were initially installed in a still-existing section of Union Terminal; these murals remain in the building.

Construction murals

Two Reiss murals are located in the checking lobby, by the current entrance to the Omnimax theater and historically an intermediate space between the rotunda and train concourse. The lobby was where passengers would check their baggage and parcels before traveling. The murals measure 13x30 ft, and depict seven people who played a significant role in the terminal's development and construction. The south mural, left to right, features Russell Wilson (Cincinnati mayor at the project's completion in 1933), H. A. Worcester (first Union Terminal Co. president), and Clarence A. Dykstra (city manager in 1933). The north mural features, left to right, Murray Seasongood (mayor at the project's start in 1929), Clarence O. Sherrill (city manager in 1929), Henry M. Waite (chief engineer for the Union Terminal Co.), and George Dent Crabbs (founder of the Union Terminal Company).

Other murals
Reiss made two murals to decorate space above the arrivals and departures chalkboards at the head of the train concourse. After the concourse's demolition, they were moved to each side of the entrance of the Cincinnati History Library, on the mezzanine level (the space is now occupied by the Holocaust & Humanity Center). The arrivals board featured an oncoming New York Central Hudson locomotive, and the departure board featured a departing observation car typical of the time. These murals were spared from demolition. From 1989 to 1991, to make room for the Omnimax theater under construction, the train murals were relocated to the mezzanine.

Pierre Bourdelle, son of renowned French sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, was also commissioned to create artwork for the terminal. He painted 5496 sqft of works, the largest single project of his career. The works included a jungle-themed mural of linoleum panels, painted and lacquered, for the women's lounge, and works for the men's lounge, baggage checking area, meeting spaces, and the executive offices. He also painted 22 murals for the lunchroom, the current Losantiville Dining Room. The murals depict live animals, fruits, vegetables, bread, and other food. They were removed around the 1980s due to damage from nicotine, soot, and dirt, and were restored and re-hung in 2018 during the terminal's renovation. The murals once again decorate the room's frieze. The ceiling mural in the room's vestibule was also cleaned, and a small patch was left uncleaned to show the extent of the restoration.

Innovations, reception, and legacy
The terminal is widely considered the United States' finest example of railway architecture, and one of the last grand train stations in the country. The terminal was designed with a large amount of interior and exterior art, unusual for train stations at the time, intended to set Union Terminal apart and make it a model of modern Cincinnati. The commission was one of the largest of the time period. As well, the dome was the largest unsupported half-dome at the time of opening.

The terminal is popularly recognized by the American public; it was the 45th most popular work of architecture in the United States in the American Institute of Architects' 2006-2007 survey America's Favorite Architecture. It was also recognized in the survey as the most popular work of architecture in the state of Ohio.

In popular culture
Union Terminal inspired the design of the Hall of Justice, a fictional Justice League headquarters appearing in comic books, television, and other media published by DC Comics. The Hall of Justice first appeared in the 1970s animated series Super Friends. The show was produced by Hanna-Barbera, a division of Cincinnati-based Taft Broadcasting. One of the animators, Al Gmuer, likely visited the terminal while attending meetings, and confirmed he was inspired by the terminal in designing the superhero headquarters. It will appear in the 2025 film Superman.

Union Terminal was also featured in the 1996 DC comic book series Terminal City.

In 2023, the station was featured on a USPS Forever stamp in a five-stamp "Railroad Stations" series. The stamp illustrations were made by Down the Street Designs, and Derry Noyes served as the art director.

Background, planning, and construction
Cincinnati was a major center of railroad traffic in the late 19th and early 20th century. However, Cincinnati's intercity passenger traffic was split among five stations which were cramped and prone to flooding from the Ohio River. After the Great Flood of 1884, railroad presidents began seeking one major terminal located far from the river. During the midst of planning, World War I and the Depression of 1920–21 interrupted efforts to create the union station. An agreement for a union station among the seven railroads that served Cincinnati and the city itself was not achieved until July 1927. The seven railroads – the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; Chesapeake and Ohio Railway; New York Central Railroad (through its subsidiary, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, or "the Big Four"); Louisville and Nashville Railroad; Norfolk and Western Railway; Pennsylvania Railroad; and the Southern Railway – selected a site for their new station in the West End, near the Mill Creek.

The architectural firm Fellheimer & Wagner was commissioned to design the terminal in June 1928. The firm first released conservative plans with Gothic attributes in June 1929. The design evolved toward its final Art Deco design between 1931 and 1932. Art Deco was chosen with its proposed cost savings in mind, as well as its liveliness, color, and modern decoration.

The Union Terminal Company was created on July 14, 1927, to build the terminal complex and other related transportation improvements. Construction began in 1928 with the regrading of the Mill Creek valley to a point nearly level with the surrounding city, an effort that required 5.5 e6cuyd of landfill. Other work included the construction of mail and express terminals, an engine terminal, power house, coach yard, viaducts over the Mill Creek, and the railroad approaches to Union Terminal. Construction on the terminal building itself began in August 1929, shortly before the Great Depression. Construction was finished six months ahead of schedule; its final cost was $41.5 million. The terminal was put into emergency operation on March 19, 1933, because another Ohio River flood forced the closure of four train stations in the city. The official opening of the station was on March 31, 1933. At this event, B&O director John J. Cornwell notably stated that passenger stations were declining in use, and that the building's completion came after its need had passed.

Operation and decline
Union Terminal opened during the Great Depression, a time of decline in train travel. Its early years therefore experienced relatively low passenger traffic. By 1939, local newspapers were already describing the station as a white elephant. While it had a brief revival in the 1940s, because of World War II, it declined in use through the 1950s into the 1960s, as passengers had taken to affordable individual automobiles and airplanes for long-distance travel. In the late 1950s the Union Terminal Company began searching for other uses for the building. Train service decreased from 51 per day in 1953 to 24 per day in 1962. In June 1963, eight proposals for the space were made public: a railroad museum; transportation center for air, bus and rail lines; court building; convention center; Air Force museum; museum of science and industry; private industry; and a shopping center. In 1968, the Cincinnati Science Center opened in Union Terminal, though due to financial difficulties, the museum closed in 1970.

Abandonment and partial demolition
Amtrak took over most passenger service in the United States in 1971, and cut back Cincinnati's service to just two routes a day, subsequently reduced to just one. As this did not even begin to justify the use of such a large facility, Amtrak also scheduled the terminal to close in October 1972, after 18 months of Amtrak service. The terminal would this be the first major station it abandoned in favor of a new station. The scheduled closure left the terminal's fate uncertain, leading multiple efforts to bring the topic to public attention in mid-to-late October 1972. On October 11, 1972, the Ohio Historical Society nominated the terminal for the National Register of Historic Places, with a note of emergency as Southern Railway planned to demolish the terminal; the nomination was approved 20 days later. The last passenger train departed on October 28, 1972, and Amtrak abandoned the terminal and opened a smaller station nearby on the following day. The Union Terminal Company was left with an empty building, no income, and significant debt. It sold the building and rail yard to Southern Railway, which was expanding its freight operations. The railroad turned the passenger yard into a freight yard, and planned on removing the terminal's train concourse to allow additional height for its piggyback operations. The Southern Railway announced the demolition plans and allowed interested parties time to remove the concourse's murals.

In January 1973, the Revive Union Terminal Committee picketed a Southern Railway board member's house, the city commissioner refused to issue a wrecking permit for the terminal, and further public events were planned. On May 15, 1973, the Cincinnati City Council's Urban Development and Planning Committee voted 3–1 to designate Union Terminal for preservation as a Cincinnati Local Historic Landmark, preventing Southern Railway from destroying the entire building. In 1974, the Southern Railway tore down most of the train concourse. Before this, the city removed fourteen Reiss industrial murals; they were transported and installed at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. A grassroots campaign named "Save the Terminal" raised the $400,000 needed to save the works, though it could not raise sufficient funds to save the map mural at the west wall of the concourse, which was destroyed. Several plans were floated for reuse of the building in the 1970s, including as a local transit hub or arts school. In August 1975, the City of Cincinnati purchased the terminal and searched for tenants. Three developers proposed plans, and the city chose the Joseph Skilken Organization, a Columbus, Ohio-based real estate developer.

The Skilken Organization initially proposed "Oz" or the "Land of Oz", a shopping mall with an ice skating rink and bowling alley. The ice skating and bowling never materialized, but the shopping center's retail and restaurants began installation in 1978. Skilken invested about $20 million in renovating the terminal. In 1977, the terminal was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark. On August 4, 1980, the mall had its opening celebration, with 40 tenants. At its peak, the mall had 7,800 to 8,000 visitors per day and had 54 vendors. The recession of the early 1980s hurt the mall; interest rates quickly grew from 6 to 22 percent. In 1981, the first tenant moved out; by 1982, the number of tenants had fallen to 21. In August 1982, the Cincinnati Museum of Health, Science and Industry opened in the terminal. Oz closed in 1984, but its anchor — Loehmann's Department Store in the center of the Rotunda — remained open until the following year.

Museum operation and rail service
In the early 1980s, the Cincinnati Historical Society and Cincinnati Museum of Natural History began to search for larger spaces. They eventually decided to join in occupying space in Union Terminal. To fund the necessary renovations, Hamilton County voters approved a $33 million bond levy in May 1986. Other funding came from the state of Ohio ($8 million) the city of Cincinnati ($3 million), and more than 3,000 Cincinnati individuals, corporations and foundations. The renovation turned some 200000 sqft of underground space, as well as the terminal's taxi and bus ramps, into exhibition space. The main concourse was restored, retail space was refurbished, and the theater was restored. The entrance to the train concourse was renovated into the Omnimax theater, and the men's lounge became Amtrak's waiting room and ticket counter.

The museum opened on November 10, 1990. The original members of the museum center were the Cincinnati Historical Society Library, Cincinnati History Museum, Cincinnati Museum of Natural History, and the Robert D. Lindner Family Omnimax Theater. The center became the fourth-largest attraction in the area, behind the Cincinnati Reds, Kings Island, and the Cincinnati Zoo. The museum center renovations also allowed Amtrak to restore service to Union Terminal via the tri-weekly Cardinal train in 1991. In 1995, the entities officially merged to create the Cincinnati Museum Center, also joined by the Cinergy Children's Museum in October 1998.

In 2004, county residents approved a levy for the building's operating costs and capital repairs. In 2009, they extended the levy to fund further repairs, and the museum center began to restore the terminal's southwest wing of the terminal.

In July 2016, the museum shut down for the first renovation of the entire building, a $228 million effort that would last until November 2018. In July 2018, Amtrak stopped staffing 15 of its stations, including Cincinnati. Since the completion of the renovation project, Amtrak allows customers to check bags trainside. The building and museum center had their reopening ceremony on November 17, 2018.

In January 2019, the terminal gained another museum as a tenant, the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center, in the former space of the History Library.

title: Cincinnati Union Terminal


text:
Talk:Nationwide Building Society

Ranking
Since it is the largest UK building society, and there are only five banks with greater financial assets according to Banks of the United Kingdom, isn't Nationwide the sixth, rather than seventh, largest high street financial institution in the UK, or am I missing something? -- Bonalaw 12:45, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Abbey national was sixth until it was taken over.
 * Ah yes, that'll be it. Thanks. --Bonalaw 12:11, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Opening paragraph
Presently the opening paragraph reads: One of the major UK mutual building societies remaining today is the Nationwide Building Society, with headquarters in Swindon, Wiltshire, South West England.

1) Aren't all building societies in the UK mutual organisations? To me, 'mutual building society' reads like 'unmarried bachelor', with the 'mutual' being unnecessary (and information that should be obtainable from the building society page.

2) NBS is clearly the largest building society in the UK by just about any relevant measure, if not all such measures. Why have it as only 'one of the major' UK building societies remaining when it is the largest building society in the world?

Thoughts and comments, anyone, before I make the relevant amendments? Matthew 13:25, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

 * I think 'one of the major' is meant in the context of original building societies, i.e. Nationwide is the last big one left, the only big one that didn't de-mutualise. I agree with the 'unmarried bachelor' statement, I beleive a building society has to be mutual by law (i.e. non PLC, hence why all the de-mutualised building societies that became PLCs didn't retain the name building society in their legal titles or brand names). -- thingiemajig - 26 July 2006

 * Point taken re the intent of 'one of the major', but the way it's written at present makes it sound as though there are other building societies that are of comparable size to NBS and also remain.
 * I know Halifax and Abbey were larger building societies before they demutualised; were any of the others also larger? Matthew 21:46, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

History
I am unsure of the dates for this but I first became a member of a building society in the 1950s. The society was the Hastings Building Society. At a later date it merged with (I think) the Preston Building Society (Lancashire) and at an even later date the merged society merged again with the Anglia BS. If anyone knows of those dates it will help to add a little more info to this article Peter Shearan 05:37, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

 * From memory, there's a large 'family tree' at the old Anglian Head Office in Northampton that shows all the mergers through time and when they were. Matthew 07:03, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

ISP
Is Nationwide's ISP offering from the late 1990s worth a mention, does anyone think? And does anyone know much about it? Someone somewhere must have one of the installation discs still kicking around! :-) Matthew 11:18, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I've got the installation disks in the loft, came on two 3" disks. It was pretty rubbish or accessing it over a 28K modem was rubbish, one or the other! QuiteUnusual (talk) 21:45, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Probably not. Branded ISPs were ten a penny in the late 1990s, before broadband superseded their business model, and not very significant to the brands they used. Thelem (talk) 01:36, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * True. However, I have a recollection, perhaps false, that Nationwide was very early in becoming a branded ISP. Matthew (talk) 11:28, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Promoting itself
I noticed that Nationwide Building Society IP added it's own URL to promote it's 'Sponsored By You' campaign: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=145649109.

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois.ch?ip=155.192.35.8

Surely, this violates Wikipedia policy? --77.5.108.187 (talk) 03:57, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

also, the 'Society Spokespeople' section reads like a corporate 'About Us' page, and has probably just been copied and pasted. It includes references to 'our customers'. 79.77.97.146 (talk) 18:49, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Key People
I agree with the editor above who suggested that the language red like the company's own words; i have cut out all except the most basic description of each person: Their job title. Checking other companies, such as RBOS, Alliance and Leicester, Tesco, and even Wal-Mart, that is the most that the equvalent, non-controversial people get. Cheers, Lindsay 20:06, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Interest
Not only was the Key People section overloaded, but the Interest section, though interesting (sorry!) is more suited to interest than this specific institution. Certainly we don't need details of how Nationwide calculates interest and their policies about it; that reads more like one of their brochures to interested customers. Thus, i'm gonna remove it. Cheers, Lindsay 06:46, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

 * I wrote that section. Unfortunately, Nationwide does not use a "standard" approach to calculating interest. Pointing someone at an 'Interest' section doesn't help as its a very basic, and unrealistic way of looking at it in enterprise terms. Working in that department for nearly 18 months, I can say that it is unlike many other financial institutions. For example, interest is calculated in whole pounds, is re-projected when interest rates rise and fall and calculated on a daily basis. Although you are correct with the leaflet being available, there are not many people who know how to do this on a daily basis for the entire organisations accounts. There were only about 5 or 6 when I left.

 * Since their "Interest Calculations" department's method is usually taught over a 5 day training camp and not computed (when disputes are dealt with), it is useful for the public to had an idea on how to do this, as it doesn't take up much space and is relatively easy to do.

 * If you want N/W to calculate it, the usual process is for you to write a letter, N/W will send you the leaflet and ask you to work it out, then send it back to them to prove it wrong. It is only when the complaint gets raised to the ombudsman or stages 2/3 (where 1 is the letter initially being sent and logged) where the calculation is carried out by hand.

 * I could possibly move this to a Nationwide Building Society Interest Calculations as a dedicated section.

 * As homework(!), see if you can find out, easily, any financial institutions method of interest calculation. I don't think you can without a phone call, a leaflet and a puzzled customer to can.

 * Dominicz (talk) 17:05, 19 January 2009 (UTC)Dominic

Nationwide International
The link to the Isle of Man subsidiary is a redirect back to this article, and should be removed. An unregistered user has been adding it back in, but I don't think it is helpful to readers. Comments? --Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) (Talk) 10:16, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

 * Yep. I think it's probably fair to make a good-faith assumption that the user doesn't know either A) that that link is a self-redirect, or B) that we don't tend to link to self-redirects. And with that assumption, I think we can just revert the edits as good-faith-but-wrong. Dreaded Walrus t c 14:41, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Co-operatives UK
Apparently Nationwide has just joined Co-operatives UK, so I've added it to the opening section. I can only find one mention of it via Google, but it is the Co-operatives UK website, so is probably correct. No mention of it on the Nationwide website, though. http://www.uk.coop/blog/linzi-nedoszytko/2012-04-11/new-businesses-join-co-operatives-uk 82.4.203.224 (talk) 10:11, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

Disclosure before editing
The current page for Nationwide Building Society requires some updating; for example, some of the financial results data on the page is currently from 2008 and 2009. I would therefore like to make some updates and other changes for the benefit of readers.

The reason why I mention this is because I am an employee of Nationwide Building Society and therefore there is a potential conflict of interest. However, I will ensure my changes are as balanced and factual as possible and I will make references to publically available sources for the changes I make.

Please do contact me on my Talk Page if you have any questions.

Thanks

Ajh489 (talk) 08:59, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

Edit summary - 28/10/13
Further to my note dated 17 October 2013, I have made some changes to the page, which I believe will benefit readers. As mentioned before, I am an employee of Nationwide Building Society and there is a potential conflict of interest. However, I believe the changes I have made are balanced and factual. The history and information is now more up-to-date than before.

Feel free to contact me on my Talk Page if you have any questions about the additions I’ve made.

Thanks.

Ajh489 (talk) 15:58, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

Edit summary - 13/12/13
I have made some minor edits to the page to reflect Nationwide Building Society's latest interim financial results.

I am an employee of Nationwide and there is a potential conflict of interest. However, I believe the changes I have made are minor and factual.

Feel free to contact me on my Talk Page if you have any questions about the additions I’ve made.

Ajh489 (talk) 10:51, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on Nationwide Building Society. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20131029224846/http://www.bsa.org.uk/keystats/index.htm to http://www.bsa.org.uk/keystats/index.htm
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.nationwideuk.ie/about/latest-updates/2009/nationwideUkirelandlaunches.asp

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 11:13, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 00:56, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Nationwide Building Society. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20151116111313/http://your.nationwide.co.uk/your-news/articles/Pages/regional-brands-integration.aspx to http://your.nationwide.co.uk/your-news/articles/Pages/regional-brands-integration.aspx
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160508232818/http://www.nationwide.co.uk/about/media-centre-and-specialist-areas/media-centre/press-releases/archive/2015/11/16-nationwide-building-society-appoints-joe-garner-as-chief-executive to http://www.nationwide.co.uk/about/media-centre-and-specialist-areas/media-centre/press-releases/archive/2015/11/16-nationwide-building-society-appoints-joe-garner-as-chief-executive

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 18:28, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Nationwide Building Society. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140122091420/http://www.nationwide.co.uk/about_nationwide/membership_matters/history/history.htm to http://www.nationwide.co.uk/about_nationwide/membership_matters/history/history.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060831145528/http://www.nationwide.co.uk/about_nationwide/membership_matters/subsidiaries.htm to http://www.nationwide.co.uk/about_nationwide/membership_matters/subsidiaries.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 20:17, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Nationwide Building Society. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130622082127/http://www.building-societies-members.org.uk/Nationwide%20Building%20Society.htm to http://www.building-societies-members.org.uk/Nationwide%20Building%20Society.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 13:49, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

Opening paragraph
I am an employee of Nationwide and so following the COI policy, please can you consider the proposed edits and update the Nationwide Building Society page. The information I'm providing is accurate, up to date and factual. The existing information i'm proposing to change is out of date and factually inaccurate.

Please replace "Nationwide is the result of over a hundred mergers, the most notable of which are its merger with Anglia Building Society in 1987 and Portman Building Society in 2007. It is now the second largest provider of household savings and mortgages in the UK and has a 7.7% market share of current accounts.

For the financial year 2015/2016, Nationwide had assets of around £208.9 billion compared to £331 billion for the entire building society sector,[3] making it larger than the remaining 44 British building societies combined.[needs update]"

with the below

"Today’s Nationwide is made up of around 250 different building societies. Among the most significant mergers were those with the Anglia Building Society in 1987 and the Portman Building Society in 2007. It is now the second largest provider of household savings and mortgages in the UK and has a 10.3% market share of current accounts as of half year results 2021/2022. As at half year 2021/22, Nationwide had assets of around £285.4 billion compared to £465 billion for the entire building society sector (as at April 2022),[3] making it larger than the remaining 42 British building societies combined."

--CJK1979 (talk) 12:12, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

 * Pictogram voting question.svg Question: Would you be able to provide any independent sourcing? PK650 (talk) 03:14, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

 * CJK1979 (talk) 08:32, 17 May 2022 (UTC) thank you so for responding. All of the financial results we provide are independently audited. There is also a published history of Nationwide by Michael Cassell, called Inside Nationwide, published in 1984. I hope this answers your question. If so, would you be happy to update the factual and up to date content I have provided? Thank you so much, for engaging.
 * @CJK1979 Hello, I could not verify/find the £465 billion figure in the link you provided (I opened the PDF). Also, could you update the numbers now that the 2022 Annual Report] is out? Declining for now, please re-open the request when you have an update or can help verify the £465bn figure. Ptrnext (talk) 03:33, 9 July 2022 (UTC)
 * CJK1979 (talk) 10:30, 19 July 2022 (UTC) Thank you so much for your response. I have updated the figures to reflect the Society's most recent set of annual results. All the information can be found in the Society's Annual Report. @Ptrnext in response to verifying the the total assets figure for the entire building society sector, by adding up all of the building societies assets in the pdf you will find this will total £483 billion. Thank  you again for your support and engagement. I look forward to hearing from you.
 * Changes:
 * In the first paragraph please can you update 15 million members to over 16 million members.
 * Please could you replace the second and third paragraph with the following:
 * Today’s Nationwide is made up of around 250 different building societies. Among the most significant mergers were those with the Anglia Building Society in 1987 and the Portman Building Society in 2007. It is now the second largest provider of household savings and mortgages in the UK and has a 10.3% market share of current accounts as of full year results 2021/2022.
 * As at full year 2021/22, Nationwide had assets of around £272.4 billion[2] compared to £483 billion for the entire building society sector (as at June 2022),[3] making it larger than the remaining 42 British building societies combined. CJK1979 (talk) 10:30, 19 July 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅. added a 3rd party citation as well and updated infobox with the financials. Ptrnext (talk) 04:28, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

History
I am an employee of Nationwide and so following the COI policy, please can you consider the proposed edits and update the Nationwide Building Society page. The information I'm providing is accurate, up to date and factual. The existing information i'm proposing to change is out of date and factually inaccurate.

On the 6 June 2022 Debbie Crosbie became the new CEO of Nationwide Building Society. Please could you delete this sentence 'On 22 May 2015, it was announced that the Society's Chief Executive, Graham Beale, intended to retire. On 16 November 2015, Nationwide announced that Joe Garner, CEO of Openreach, would succeed Graham as Nationwide CEO in Spring 2016.[12] Joe Garner joined the Society as Chief Executive on 5 April 2016.'

Thank you CJK1979 (talk)

with the sentence below.

'On the 3 December 2021 Nationwide Building Society announced that Debbie Crosbie, would succeed Joe Garner as Nationwide’s CEO. Debbie Crosbie joined the Society on 6 June 2022.'

I am an employee of Nationwide and so following the COI policy, please can you consider the proposed edits below and update the Nationwide Building Society History section. The information I'm providing is accurate, up to date and factual. The existing information i'm proposing to change is out of date and factually inaccurate.

Please would you be able to replace the first paragraph in the history section with the following: 'The Society's origins lie in the Co-operative Permanent Building Society, founded in 1884. Based at New Oxford House, High Holborn, it changed its name in 1970 after deciding to leave the British Co-operative Union. The new name was put to a member vote, with members voting 135,675 to 15,585 in favour.[5]'

In the second paragraph please can you change the year from 1992 to 1991. And then following this please could you add this new paragraph...'In 1992, Nationwide moved its head office to Nationwide House, Pipers Way, Swindon. It had been operating a computer centre and administrative office in the town since 1974 and head office departments had been gradually migrating to Swindon.'

Please could you replace the paragraph that starts...'Nationwide completed a merger...' with the following...'In 2007, Nationwide members voted at its Annual General Meeting to donate at least 1% of pre-tax profits to charitable activities each year. Nationwide completed a merger with Portman Building Society on 28 August 2007, creating a mutual body with assets of over £160 billion and around 13 million members. Portman's earliest component was the Provident Union Building Society founded in Ramsbury, Wiltshire in 1846.'

In the paragraph starting ...'On the 24 March 2009...' please could you add the words 'Building Society' after Nationwide in the first sentence.

In the paragraph starting 'In 2012...' please could the word society be capitalised. Could it also be capitalised in the same paragraph where is says..'divisions of the society'. At the beginning of paragraph ten, could 'society' also be capitalised. And please could 'the society' also be capitalised in paragraph 11.

Please could the following paragraph be added before the last paragraph of the History section announcing Debbie Crosbie as CEO. 'In 2017, Nationwide announced it would be building a new community at Oakfield in Swindon working in partnership with Swindon Borough Council. Planning permission for the 239 houses was granted in 2019. The homes will be EPC A rated and built on a not-for-profit model. In 2021 the development won the ‘Building for a Healthy Life’ prize as part of the Housing Design Awards.' For reference please see Nationwide’s Oakfield development wins coveted housing award”. www.nationwidemediacentre.co.uk. Retrieved 17 March 2022.

In paragraph 11 please could 250 be updated to 297. Our Annual report for 2017-18 states that it was 297 staff.

Thank you for your support CJK1979 (talk) 13:11, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Hello @CJK1979: Your latest edit request was marked as answered when you used . I have dropped the |A, so that the request is open.
 * BTW, could you provide any citations for the additions. e.g. .'In 1992, Nationwide moved its head office to Nationwide House, Pipers Way, Swindon. It had been operating a computer centre and administrative office in the town since 1974 and head office departments had been gradually migrating to Swindon.'

 * It would also be helpful if the additions/replacements/deletions can be formatted using colors (e.g. green for additions; red/strikethrough for deletions/replacements). Thanks, Ptrnext (talk) 04:23, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

@Ptrnext Thank you again for your guidance, please find the additions/replacements/deletions in the requested format below.

Based at New Oxford House in the London Borough of Camden, it changed its name to Nationwide Building Society in 1970, reflecting an organisation that had coverage throughout the country, after a decision by the British Co-operative Union in August 1970.

Based at New Oxford House, High Holborn, it changed its name in 1970 after deciding to leave the British Co-operative Union.

✅ Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:18, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

1992 1991

✅ Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:18, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

Please can you add the following paragraph following the paragraph ending... 'was dropped in 1991.' In 1992, Nationwide moved its head office to Nationwide House, Pipers Way, Swindon. It had been operating a computer centre and administrative office in the town since 1974 and head office departments had been gradually migrating to Swindon.

✅ Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:18, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

Please could you replace this paragraph with Nationwide completed a merger with Portman Building Society on 28 August 2007, creating a mutual body with assets of over £160 billion and around 13 million members. Portman's earliest component was the Provident Union Building Society founded in Ramsbury, Wiltshire in 1846. with this... In 2007, Nationwide members voted at its Annual General Meeting to donate at least 1% of pre-tax profits to charitable activities each year. Nationwide completed a merger with Portman Building Society on 28 August 2007, creating a mutual body with assets of over £160 billion and around 13 million members. Portman's earliest component was the Provident Union Building Society founded in Ramsbury, Wiltshire in 1846.

✅ Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:18, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

Please add the words Building Society so it reads 'On 24 March 2009, Nationwide Building Society...'

✅ Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:18, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

In this paragraph please can the word...'society' (x2) and 'societies' (x1) be capitalised. 'In 2012, the society Societyannounced that it would integrate the Cheshire, Derbyshire and Dunfermline building society color|green|Building Society}} into Nationwide. The societies had operated under their own brands as divisions of the society Society. The rebranding of each business was phased, with the Dunfermline first to be merged in June 2014.[11][12] The Cheshire and Derbyshire followed in October and November 2014 respectively.'

✅ Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:18, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

Can the word society be capitalised...'In May 2016, the society Society

✅ Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:18, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

Nationwide took on 250 297 staff previously employed by the contractor.[17]

✅ Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:18, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

Please can the word society be capitalised...'In April 2017, the society Society

✅ Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:18, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

After the paragraph ending 'The remainder of the business closed at the end of the year.' please can the following paragraph be added... In 2017, Nationwide announced it would be building a new community at Oakfield in Swindon working in partnership with Swindon Borough Council. Planning permission for the 239 houses was granted in 2019. The homes will be EPC A rated and built on a not-for-profit model. In 2021 the development won the ‘Building for a Healthy Life’ prize as part of the Housing Design Awards.

✅ Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:18, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

In March 2022, Kevin Parry replaced David Roberts as chairman Chairman; and in June 2022, Debbie Crosbie, who had been CEO of TSB Bank, succeeded Joe Garner, as chief executice Chief Executive.[19]

✅ Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:18, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

 * Hello, thanks for the formatting. So, I'm still not seeing an inline citation for the sentence that begins with In 1992, Nationwide moved.. The proposed additions that begin with In 2007, Nationwide members voted at.. and In 2017, Nationwide announced it would be building a new community.. would need independent secondary sourcing to be included, also some of it sounds a bit promotional, so I'll not be able to add them. The capitalization of chairman and chief executive are not needed per MOS:JOBTITLE. Thanks, Ptrnext (talk) 00:46, 8 September 2022 (UTC)

 * @CJK1979 I think I got everything.  If I missed anything, or you want more changes, please submit a new. clean edit request.  Cheers. Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:18, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 13:54, 6 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Nationwide-house-aerial-download.jpg

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Nationwide Building Society


text:
Wikipedia:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles/Hot/B

 * 1) B. Blumenkrantz - historian of European Jewry
 * 2) Bachman tools
 * 3) Bacillite
 * 4) Backfile conversion
 * 5) Backfilling
 * 6) Background ink
 * 7) Background processing
 * 8) Backing storage
 * 9) Backside cache
 * 10) Backup file
 * 11) Backup server
 * 12) BackWeb channel owner
 * 13) BackWeb
 * 14) Bacterial physiology and metabolism
 * 15) Bactrites
 * 16) Baglioni Family
 * 17) Bagnold Friction Law
 * 18) Baimiao
 * 19) Bakhuis Gebergte
 * 20) Baku Rug
 * 21) Balaghat Range
 * 22) Balanopales
 * 23) Ballad Revival
 * 24) Ball-and-race-type pulverizer
 * 25) Ballard Family
 * 26) Ballet Movement
 * 27) Balletto - Dab page?
 * 28) Balliol Family
 * 29) Ballistic gain
 * 30) Ballistic range
 * 31) Balloon vine - double check?
 * 32) Balochi Rug
 * 33) Baltic Religion
 * 34) BancTec
 * 35) Bandwidth manager
 * 36) Bandwidth Pattern
 * 37) Bandwidth requirements (communications)
 * 38) Bandwidth Synthesis
 * 39) Banshan Ware
 * 40) Barabich
 * 41) Baradla Caves
 * 42) Barbados Ridge
 * 43) Barbooth
 * 44) Bardeen Potential
 * 45) Bardeen-Petterson Effect
 * 46) Bare die
 * 47) Barents Council
 * 48) Bark-gnawing beetle - any member of the insect family Trogossitidae (Ostomidae)
 * 49) Barnard Gratz
 * 50) Baroclinic field
 * 51) Barotropic field We have Barotropic
 * 52) Barrio Obrero Industrial
 * 53) Barthel Bartholomaeus Bruyn
 * 54) Barycentric calculus
 * 55) Basaltes Ware
 * 56) Base alignment
 * 57) Base font
 * 58) Base RAM
 * 59) Base/displacement
 * 60) Basel Zoological Garden
 * 61) Baselining tool
 * 62) Basic cell
 * 63) BASIC in ROM
 * 64) Basic Law of Government
 * 65) Basorun
 * 66) Bastion server
 * 67) Batch control
 * 68) Batch file transfer
 * 69) Batch operation
 * 70) Batch session
 * 71) Batch stream
 * 72) Batch terminal
 * 73) Batch total
 * 74) Batch window - own article?
 * 75) Bath-rabbim - one of the gates in the city?
 * 76) Batia Grossbard - Israeli painter born Poland 1910
 * 77) Batterman's Effect
 * 78) Battersea Enamelware
 * 79) BatteryMark
 * 80) Battle of Bahadurpur
 * 81) Battle of Barari Ghat
 * 82) Battle of Deorai - Battle of Deorham?
 * 83) Battle of Nong Sa Rai
 * 84) Bavarian State Picture Galleries
 * 85) BayStack
 * 86) Bazlith
 * 87) BBNS
 * 88) BBops/min
 * 89) BBxPROGRESSION/4
 * 90) BC4J
 * 91) BCP documents
 * 92) Bdellonemertini
 * 93) BDOS error
 * 94) Beacon packet
 * 95) Beacon removal
 * 96) Beak Style
 * 97) Beam Area
 * 98) Beam column
 * 99) Beam Convolution
 * 100) Beam Pattern
 * 101) Beam Solid Angle
 * 102) Beam-foil spectroscopy
 * 103) Bean beetle
 * 104) Bean managed persistence
 * 105) Beata Ridge
 * 106) Bebai
 * 107) BECN - own article?
 * 108) Beeliada
 * 109) Beer-lahai-roi
 * 110) Beggarweed
 * 111) Beginning Rhyme
 * 112) Beham
 * 113) Behavior blocking
 * 114) Behavior group therapy
 * 115) Behavioral level specification
 * 116) Behavioral psychophysics
 * 117) Behavioral toxicology
 * 118) Bei - all covered?
 * 119) Belessa River
 * 120) Bell 113 - Bell Helicopter like Bell 201
 * 121) Bell 208 - as above
 * 122) Bell Bay all covered?
 * 123) Bell compatible
 * 124) Bell-and-whistle
 * 125) Belle Harris Bennett
 * 126) Belleek ware
 * 127) Bellhead
 * 128) Belmont family - A wealthy American dynasty
 * 129) Belt Series
 * 130) Beltsville swine
 * 131) Beltware
 * 132) Ben Day process
 * 133) Bénard Configuration
 * 134) Benedick Effect
 * 135) Ben-hail
 * 136) Beni Isguene
 * 137) Beninu
 * 138) Benjamin Jarnes
 * 139) Ben-Reuven Lineshape
 * 140) Bent pipe architecture
 * 141) Benti
 * 142) Bentol
 * 143) Benzenecarbonal
 * 144) Berites
 * 145) Berkeley extensions
 * 146) Berlin Ware
 * 147) Bernard Karfiol
 * 148) Bernstein Mode
 * 149) Bertel Johan Sebastian, Friherre Gripenberg
 * 150) Bertold Haller
 * 151) Bertotti-Robinson Solution
 * 152) Besai
 * 153) Besodeiah
 * 154) Besserungsstuck
 * 155) Best-in-class
 * 156) Best-of-class
 * 157) Beta-Aminoisobutyric Acid Excretion
 * 158) Beth Yerah
 * 159) Beth-anath
 * 160) Beth-anoth
 * 161) Beth-arabah
 * 162) Beth-aven
 * 163) Beth-car
 * 164) Bethe-Peierls-Weiss Approximation
 * 165) Bethesda-Chevy Chase - all covered?
 * 166) Beth-hogla
 * 167) Beth-jeshimoth
 * 168) Beth-lebaoth
 * 169) Beth-marcaboth
 * 170) Beth-meon
 * 171) Beth-millo
 * 172) Beth-peor
 * 173) Beth-rehob