1939 rail terminal built on the razed ground of the 1871 Chinese Massacre, the largest mass lynching in U.S. history
800 N Alameda St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The station is publicly accessible as an active transit hub. Ghost bus tours depart separately from nearby starting points.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Indoor terminal, fully flat and paved. Elevators and ramps throughout.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1939 · 1871 Chinese Massacre site · Largest mass lynching by numbers in U.S. history · Last great American railroad station · Old Chinatown displacement
Old Chinatown occupied the area now bisected by the Union Station rail yard and surrounding blocks from roughly the 1850s through its forced clearance in the 1930s. The neighborhood was never large — the Chinese population of Los Angeles numbered in the hundreds during most of the 19th century — but it was densely settled, with homes, a joss house, a theater, and the commercial corridor of Calle de Los Negros threading north from the plaza.
On the evening of October 24, 1871, a gunfight in the neighborhood killed rancher Robert Thompson, who had intervened in an argument between two Chinese factions. By nightfall, a mob estimated at 500 people — roughly one-tenth of Los Angeles's entire population — had gathered. Over the next three hours, the crowd lynched 18 Chinese men and boys, including 15-year-old Ah Loo, from wagon tongues, gates, and the awning beams of a building that stood near the corner of Calle de Los Negros and Commercial Street. Property was looted, people were shot as they fled, and several victims were found to have been stabbed or mutilated after death. Eight men were convicted of manslaughter; all convictions were overturned on appeal within a year.
The Los Angeles Plaza was declared a civic improvement zone in the late 1920s. Old Chinatown's remaining residents were displaced between 1933 and 1938 to allow construction of Union Station, which opened May 7, 1939. The Mission Revival terminal was designed by the firm of John and Donald Parkinson and was praised nationally as the last great American railroad station. No marker at the station acknowledged the massacre site for most of the 20th century. In 2021, the city of Los Angeles formally recognized October 24 as a day of remembrance for the massacre victims; advocacy organizations have continued to press for on-site interpretation at Union Station.
Sources
The connection between Union Station and the 1871 massacre is not metaphorical. The station's footprint directly covers the block where Calle de Los Negros ran — the street along which most of the lynchings occurred. The hanging occurred from structures that no longer exist, replaced first by cleared lots and then by the station's Mission Revival concourse.
American Ghost Walks and other Los Angeles tour operators have included the station as a stop for at least a decade, building a narrative around the unacknowledged history underfoot. Reports collected by these operators describe cold spots in the main waiting room that do not correspond to HVAC vents, figures seen moving in peripheral vision along the long arcade leading to the tracks, and an unsettled feeling in the northeast corridor during quiet early-morning hours when the station is largely empty.
None of these accounts have been independently documented by researchers or investigated under controlled conditions. What gives the location weight in the dark tourism context is not the paranormal claim but the documented history: eighteen people were killed here, their killers walked free, and the site sat unmarked for more than a century. The haunting narrative, in this case, has grown from the ground up — from a history that genuinely was buried.
The station's public concourse, Mission Revival waiting room, and exterior grounds are open to visitors as an active Amtrak and Metro hub. Interpretive markers near the entrance acknowledge the adjacent site of the original Chinatown neighborhood. The hanging trees that lined Calle de Los Negros stood approximately two blocks east of the current main entrance.
American Ghost Walks includes Union Station as a stop on its Los Angeles ghost bus tour, connecting the station's architecture and ground to the 1871 massacre. Tour departs from a separate point; verify current schedule and pickup location on the tour operator's website.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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