Walking Tour of Downtown El Paso, Texas – Part 3

Prior Posting: Walking Tour of Downtown El Paso, Texas – Part 2

From San Jacinto Plaza I then next walked over to Cleveland Square.  While walking in that direction I walked over this bridge where the trains that pass through downtown due so through this underground passage in order to avoid traffic and noise problems:

In fact the train line through the rest of the El Paso is supposed to be reconstructed and many facilities moved to Santa Teresa, New Mexico to further reduce congestion and noise in El Paso. These same types of underpasses for the trains are supposed to be constructed in neighboring Juarez as well though local politicians are not happy about this.

Anyway as I walked down E. Franklin Avenue, I soon found myself over at Cleveland Square:

At the park is where the El Paso Museum of History and the downtown Public Library is located.  The library and park were renovated along with the construction of the museum in 2000.  I do have to say that the are is a nice looking part of downtown and I only saw one homeless person camped out there; that is pretty big progress for El Paso.

Across Santa Fe Street from Cleveland Square is the Insights El Paso Science Museum:

According to the museum’s website, INSIGHTS has come a long ways  since it first opened in 1980 in the old El Paso Electric Company building before moving into its current newly constructed building. It has become an important facility for the the study of science in the city of El Paso Permanent exhibits, such as the Tesla Coil, Centrifugal force spinner, among others – along with traveling exhibits under contract from the Smithsonian Institution and other recognized scientific entities comprise INSIGHTS entire exhibit floor-space.

From there I walked down Santa Fe Street towards the El Paso Convention & Performing Arts Center:

According to its website the El Paso Convention & Performing Arts Centers is where you’ll find everything from circus performances, to trade shows, to concerts by major performing artists. Near Cleveland Square and the Convention Center is the El Paso City Hall:

Considering all the historic buildings and beautiful architecture that can be found downtown, the El Paso City Hall is one of the ugliest and uninspiring buildings in the city.  City Hall made headlines for all the wrong reasons last year when bullets from a shooting in nearby Juarez struck the building.  Fortunately no one was hurt.

From the Convention Center I then continued my walk by heading west down San Antonio Avenue to Union Plaza:

Union Plaza is another newly constructed area downtown that is used as a major transit terminal for the city’s bus system and a parking garage for the Convention Center and the various night clubs in the neighborhood.  However, inside one corner of Union Plaza is the Railroad and Transportation Museum of El Paso:

The museum is quite small but they had enough room to fit in a large locomotive known as the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad No. 1.  It is a 4-4-0 type steam locomotive, preserved in El Paso, Texas. The engine was built in 1857 by Breese, Kneeland, and Company of Jersey City, New Jersey, and is the only locomotive built by that firm still in existence.

The museum has a few displays up that show historic pictures from the various railroads that passed through El Paso over the years:

They had a few nicknacks from these various railroads on display as well:

The final place I went to check out was the El Paso Union Depot:

Union Depot is quite a nice looking building that was designed by architect Daniel Burnham who also designed the Washington D.C. Union Station. He completed construction of the depot in 1906 and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The station is serviced today by Amtrak and is considered the 8th busiest train station in Texas by servicing 30 passengers a day.  Despite being considered one of the busier train stations in Texas it is pretty clear once inside that servicing 30 passengers a day doesn’t lead to a whole lot of activity within the station:

I saw one person the few minutes I walked around the inside of the train station.  Having rode trains in both Asia and Europe, I am used to busy train stations but in the US as long as Amtrak remains so slow Union Depot will continue to look like this.  Anyway that concluded my walk around downtown and all I had to do next was make the long walk back to where I parked my truck near San Jacinto Plaza.  I spent an entire morning walking around checking out downtown, but such a tour could easily take an entire day for those who want to check out the various museums as well.  Like I said on Part 1 of my walking tour posting, the city of El Paso has really done a great job fixing up downtown and increasingly making it a place for local citizens to come and visit compared to a decade ago.  I hope everyone enjoyed this walking tour of downtown El Paso and that it inspires other local citizens and visitors to check out what downtown has to offer.