"We're very proud of you and wish you the best as you finish this project."
Missouri Transportation Commission Chair Warren Erdman said that on Sept. 15 to the dignitaries and residents gathered at the Kirkwood Train Station at 110 W. Argonne Drive. The key word is finish. The ribbon cutting rededicated the 1893 station for its next 133 years. It happened on the newly completed outdoor patio, and construction was still going on inside and outside the building.
So for this fall, the station is mostly an outdoor space. The patio, the extended platform canopy and the new slate roof are in place. The waiting room behind them is still being finished. Downtown Kirkwood's fall calendar has already moved onto the outdoor spaces.
What the restoration covers, and what was in place by Sept. 15
The outside of the station is where most of the 20 months of work shows. The building closed for construction in early 2025. On June 10, 2025, the city opened a temporary station across Kirkwood Road so passengers had somewhere to go. The city listed three problems with the old building: sagging roof members, poor lighting and an inefficient HVAC system.
Here's what the project covers:
- A new slate roof with copper flashing, plus a rebuilt cupola
- A rail platform roof extended east from the main building, so the station looks the way it did in 1941
- A geothermal heating and cooling system and fire suppression
- Larger, accessible restrooms
- A new storage building, plaza and parking lot
By the ceremony, the roof, the canopy and the patio were in place. Other items were still underway. The city's most recent project update said final electric and geothermal connections for the HVAC were still being made and the storage building was 95% complete.
The canopy is the easiest change to see from the street. The station was built in 1893, renovated in 1941 and again in 1985, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. This restoration brought back the 1941 version of the platform, which a lot of current residents have never seen.
Paying for it took grants and neighbors. The Webster-Kirkwood Times reported that the city got more than $4.2 million in grants and that local donations added about another $1 million. That means grants and donations alone covered the whole project. The city has owned the station since 2003.
The part that isn't open yet
At the ceremony, officials said the inside needed at least another month of work before it could serve passengers. Sept. 15 plus a month puts the earliest likely date for the waiting room in mid-October, and that's a minimum. We haven't seen any confirmation that the interior has opened as of early October.
The finishing touches inside include murals by Kirkwood native Bryan Haynes. The plans also call for display cases of station artifacts, which together with the murals could make the inside work like a small rail-history museum. The city also plans to keep showing its "Art at the Station" exhibits there and to use the building as a visitor information stop and train-watching spot.
If you're hoping to book the station for a party or a meeting, wait a bit. The city's rental page says it isn't taking reservations while rates and renovation work are finalized. Art McDonnell, a former Kirkwood mayor who now leads the Historic Kirkwood Train Station Foundation, said the goal is a community hub for private and civic events "once all the work is completed."
Downtown's fall calendar is already using the outside
The Downtown Kirkwood Special Business District didn't wait for the interior. Fall Fest on Oct. 3 was set up in the parking lot on the station's west side. The district's own description called the event a chance "to experience the new station." The music ran from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.: Stephanie Stewart, then Neil Salsich, then Falling Fences, with Sean Canan's Voodoo Players closing from 7 to 10.
From here, the downtown calendar is mostly gathered within a few blocks of the depot:
- Oct. 8. The Station Plaza concert series closes with The Dog's Breakfast. The show was moved from Oct. 1 because of the weather forecast.
- Oct. 15, 4:30 to 8 p.m. The Night Market on Argonne fills East Argonne with vendors, food, drinks and live music from the Bedlam Brothers.
- Oct. 29. Downtown's Halloween Walk.
- Nov. 7. The Wine Walk.
- Nov. 21. The Holiday Walk, when Santa arrives by train, on the same day as the first Kirkwood Festival of Trees.
The Nov. 21 date stands out. Santa arriving by train is a longtime Kirkwood tradition, and this year he'll step off onto a platform with its 1941 canopy back in place. Depending on how the interior work goes, the waiting room behind him may be open by then too.
The West Argonne block around it
The station isn't the only new thing on its block. Fox's Finest Meats, Seafood & Marketplace opened July 22 at 159 W. Argonne, on the same stretch of street as the depot. It combines a butcher counter and seafood market with prepared foods and a gourmet grocery. If you head over for a station event, you can pick up dinner on the same walk.
The Kirkwood Farmers' Market is in its 50th season this year. The Saturday vendor market runs 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., with live music from 10 to noon. The Summit's Great Pumpkin Patch & Fall Fun Zone is at the market every day through Oct. 31. The patch itself is free to visit, and the kids' Fun Zone charges admission. When the pumpkins are gone, The Summit opens its Tree Lot & Gingerbread Shoppe on Nov. 21, the same day as the Holiday Walk.
A couple of blocks east, the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center at 210 E. Monroe has two shows worth planning around. Erin Bode plays a Coffee Concert on Oct. 14 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Strauss Black Box Theatre, with coffee and doughnuts. Motown & More is on Oct. 23 at 7:30 p.m. and benefits the Meacham Park Scholarship Program.
Trains kept running through the whole project
The building was closed for more than a year, but trains never stopped coming to Kirkwood. Passengers used the temporary structure next to the historic station the whole time. The Missouri River Runner connects St. Louis and Kansas City with two round trips a day, and the Times reports that Kirkwood is now the second-busiest stop on the line.
That ridership wasn't guaranteed. Mayor Liz Gibbons said Missouri cut funding for the line in 2020 and ridership fell by more than half in a single year. She spent two years lobbying in Jefferson City alongside other municipal leaders to get the service restored.
Volunteers run the station. Amtrak pays for staff at only about a third of its stations nationwide, and Kirkwood isn't one of them. About 46 volunteers keep the stop staffed whenever passenger trains arrive. The River Runner also has a mascot now, Ollie the Otter, who came to the ribbon cutting. It's the first Amtrak line to have one.
The next round of work starts in spring 2027
This fall won't be the last time construction comes to the depot. Amtrak plans a separate multimillion-dollar upgrade to the station's rail platforms and crossings starting in spring 2027. Kirkwood officials said the station building could reopen before that work is finished.
Put the dates together and there's a window. The patio and the canopy are in use now. The interior is expected sometime after mid-October. Track-side construction starts again next spring. Between the Night Market on Oct. 15 and Santa's train on Nov. 21, the station block should be at its most complete since work began in early 2025.
We love writing about the places Kirkwood residents use every week, and this fall the restored depot is a big one. If the station's comeback has you wondering what your own home on these streets is worth, the Chris & Kait Real Estate Team can give you a quick read. Get Your Instant Home Valuation, then come say hi at the Night Market.
