After a long night of answering guest requests, like getting more pillows or glasses of water, you pull into the Union Station train yard. The morning sun rising behind the mountains shines on the busy train station as you get right to work helping guests and fellow porters. You start to fall into a rhythm, changing out the linen from the trains to get ready for the next passengers and wondering what the rest of the day will bring. The Pullman company began hiring exclusively African Americans as porters at the end of the Civil War in 1867. This was just two years before the transcontinental railroad was completed and Ogden was linked to travel across the country. Although porters worked long hours providing service at all hours, the Pullman Company was an attractive option for former slaves. Pullman Porters could travel the country and were earning wages that were higher than many other jobs available to African Americans at the time. The Pullman Company became the single largest employer of African American men in the years that followed, and hundreds of African American porters traveled the rails through the “Junction City” of Ogden.

You shake off a good yawn as a train sends a crisp whistle sounding through the air. New passengers fill the 17 platforms at the station. You and your fellow porters gather the used bed linens and hurry the bundles to the nearby laundry building. It is a large industrial space you can’t help but sneak a look at every time you drop laundry off. The chimneys puff steam and workers are already operating the machines, washing bed sheets, tablecloths, towels, and even the uniforms of railway workers from all across the West. Built in 1951 The Union Pacific Laundry Building was expected to pay for itself in 3 years by cutting outsourced laundry costs in half. Once built, the building required 105 employees and could process 13,333 individual pieces of laundry per hour with its state-of-the-art equipment. Hotels would even ship their laundry in to be washed at Ogden station. In 1878 at least three transcontinental trains per day were stopping at Ogden. By 1913, 70 passenger trains from several rail lines were making stops in Ogden each day and by 1941, the number had climbed to 119 passenger trains. With all the passenger travel that would come through Union Station, hundreds of porters would have known this building. The building was closed in 1970 with the decline of rail travel.

After checking out with your supervisor, your excitement (and hunger) is mounting. You are less than a block away from the famed 25th Street, where they say people could find almost anything for two bits (25cents). You cross Wall Avenue onto the North side of 25th Street to the sound of a trolley’s cheerful clang to explore. The first shop you enter informs you that only White people are served on the North side of the street, but if you try again at the next shop, the Gift House, you may be able to find what you are looking for. The Gift House was one of the few places that accepted African American shoppers on the North (White) side of the street. Run by Abe Rubin, a Jewish businessman, the Gift House was in operation at least by 1946. It sold gifts, sporting goods and functioned as a pawn shop. In its earlier days, it also sold sandwiches. The Gift House is still in operation today. The far eastern section of the present-day Gift House (112 25th Street) used to be known as The China Temple which served American and Chinese food. In 1962, just one year after the restaurant opened, three African American men from Hill Air Force Base tried to hold a Civil Rights sit-in. The African American men were told to leave and go across the street to be served as Utah law at the time allowed restaurants to refuse service to anyone they chose. The African American men decided to leave the restaurant but were described as “orderly” and “well-dressed” by the police officer.

A sandwich eaten and a wrapped gift in hand, you slowly exit the Gift House, thanking the Ogden acquaintances you made while in the store. They had suggested a few places to explore while in Ogden which are friendly to African Americans. A highly recommended one is the Weakley’s Porters and Waiters Club across the street. You cross the street, catching the smooth lines of a jazz tune streaming from the basement when you open the front door. The Porters and Waiters Club was the place to go. When the clubs in Salt Lake City refused to let famous African American musicians stay to enjoy the club after performances, they would take the train up to Ogden. It opened in the 1910’s as a hotel for the African American railway workers and visitors. The 1940s was the turning point for the establishment. Joe McQueen arrived in Ogden in 1945 and Anna Belle Weekly married into the Porters and Waiters management in 1947. They soon had the “club atmosphere” and the club was subsidized by the rail companies that used the Union Station in Ogden. 25 cents per person was the fee to enter the club, with the price sometimes reaching $1.25. After 1951, the club desegregated and started allowing people of all colors to come hear the world-famous music. The Porters and Waiters establishment was closed in 1960.

Walking to your hotel in the cool evening air, you catch glimpses of the neighborhood behind 25th street. According to the people you talked with in the club, that whole six block section South of 25th Street is the African American community. Churches, schools, and connection all found its place there, providing some relief from segregation - just like the atmosphere of the all-black Porters and Waiters Club. Even though the neighborhood is crowded, it sounds like a nice place to live. The Royal Hotel was always a place where blue collar workers from the train and travelers could rent a modest room. Built in 1914 it soon became a place that would welcome the African American workers, travelers, and other minorities all throughout its operation. The basement even held the office for the black military police during WWII. Around the 1940s it was the only other hotel, besides the Porters and Waiters club, that provided housing for African Americans during segregation. And, as the Porters and Waiters club only gave rooms to railway employees, the Royal Hotel was the only hotel that received the non-railroad employee guests. It still functions today as housing accommodations and is on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978. As a porter, you need to be up and back to work early tomorrow morning, making sure to pick up your freshly cleaned uniform and the bed linens from the laundry building before the next group of passengers arrive. It would be a good night’s rest without interruptions from train passengers. And hopefully soon, you think as you close your eyes, you can return to Ogden and its well-known 25th Street.

If you liked Ogden so much it would be likely you apply for a job as a Red Cap porter in the Union Station Depot if there was a position available. If not, Ogden would be a favorable place to make your home base, leaving your family here as Ogden is a crossroads of the West with many major railway companies connecting lines through Ogden. CONCLUSION: Like the Pullman Porters, Union Station had several African American workers who were based in Ogden. This was their home. Caring for several things such as weighing and transporting baggage at the station, these depot workers were part of what made Union Station such a seamless stop for Ogden visitors. During the years surrounding WWII, 18 Red Cap porters kept the station functioning around the clock. Although much of the Pullman Porter’s experience was tainted by segregation and restrictions while in Ogden, 25th Street’s Porters and Waiters Club blossomed with the frequent visits of railway staff and travelers and from 1900 to 1940 Ogden’s black population jumped from 51 to 351 with the railroad boom. Ogden grew to become home to the second largest black community in the State of Utah. Famous Jazz musician, Joe McQueen, found his fame in the Porters and Waiters Club. He came to Ogden for a short gig, but weeks stretched into months... He served as a Union Station Red Cap briefly during that time and made Ogden his home. Joe McQueen lived to the age of 100 - still an Ogdenite. Would you have stayed?