When it was built in 1888, New London’s Union Station made a powerful architectural statement with its strong massing. It was planned to integrate New London transportation, which included service by six railroad companies. Unlike the preceding train dept of 1852, Union Station was on the city side of the railroad tracks and blocked the view of the city’s active harbor and busy rail yards from the commercial district on State and Bank Streets. Commissioned in 1885, the station was designed by H.H. Richardson, but was not completed until after his death in 1886. The building represents a variation of his distinctive Romanesque style in a scheme recalling his plan for Harvard’s Sever Hall (1880). It is therefore referred to as Richardson’s “Last Station.” Saved from demolition and renovated in the 1970s, the station has recently been again restored.