Highlights of the $10 million renovation project involve a complete restoration, cleaning and redressing of the station’s original design and architectural features, including:
o Delicate accents in the 65-foot lobby, including a polishing of the 128 panels of multi-colored stained glass atop the hotel’s original barrel-vaulted ceiling;
o Addition of an “upscale comfortable” restaurant named Prime 108;
o Installation of a new marble floor in the hotel’s expansive lobby, plus cleaning of the hotel’s original gold-leaf medallions and rare bas-relief sculptures;
o New marble in all bathrooms with many guestrooms upgraded to glass-enclosed showers;
o A total makeover of all guestrooms—no two of which are exactly alike—including furniture, fixtures and décor;
o Behind-the-scenes modernization of heating, air-conditioning, Internet and other systems.

“There was a grand celebration Oct. 9, 1900 that marked Union Station as a major factor in Nashville’s transportation and economic life. This Oct. 9, we put the Union Station Hotel in the spotlight again for its role in Nashville’s hospitality, tourism and meetings industries,” said Mark Bloom, a principal in Nashville-based Corner Partnership, which owns the hotel with Turnberry Associates.

The Union Station Hotel, a Wyndham Historic Hotel and a member of Historic Hotels of America, is one of Nashville’s most identifiable buildings. Many visitors consider it part of a Nashville architectural trifecta that consists of the Union Station Hotel, the nearby Ryman Auditorium and the city’s replica of the Parthenon from ancient Athens.

“The building’s size and Romanesque design are impressive now. We can only imagine what an impact it had when it opened at the turn of the last century,” Bloom said.

It is 247 feet tall from track level to the top of its clock tower, where a statue of Mercury, messenger of the gods and god of roads and travelers, perches.

The architectural and design touches inside are a tribute to artisans of another era. In addition to the signature stained-glass ceiling are large clocks at either end of the lobby, a bas-relief sculpture of an Egyptian pharaoh in a chariot and another bas-relief sculpture of a powerful steam locomotive.

The bas-relief locomotive is No. 108, which inspired the name of the hotel’s new restaurant, Prime 108.

Other sculptures include two female figures representing Miss Louisville and Miss Nashville (the railroad’s namesake cities) and a veritable choir of angels. Above the lobby’s 10 great archways are 20 “angels of commerce,” in surprisingly revealing gowns for the conservative time in which the building opened, showing off Tennessee products such as corn, wheat, books and, yes, whiskey.

After passenger train traffic diminished and then left Nashville later in the 1900s, Union Station declined. Mercury even fell from the top of the tower in 1952. The decline was reversed in 1986 when Union Station came back to life as a hotel. The recent two-year renovation has added another level of amenities and appeal.

In addition to its guestrooms, it has 12,000 square feet of flexible meeting space in six meeting rooms, a business center and a fitness center. In-room amenities include high-speed wireless Internet service, Herman Miller Aeron work chairs, plasma flat-screen televisions and CD players (this is Music City USA, after all).