Local Railroad Family Supports Union Station Western Expansion $1 Million Gift Recently Announced Image Above: Extended Haverty Family
“Marlys and I come from simple backgrounds,” Mike Haverty,
former Board Chairman of Union Station Kansas City and retired Chairman, CEO and president of Kansas City Southern, said. “Our philosophy is that if you are successful, you have an obligation to help others and give back to the community, to help make it a better place.” Indeed, with their recent $1 million gift announcement from the Michael and Marlys Haverty Family Foundation toward the significant Union Station Western Expansion project, that philosophy of generosity has once again been put into action. The Haverty family started in the railroad business in 1865 when Irish immigrant, carpenter and laborer Thomas W. Haverty arrived in Atchison, Kansas to help build a railroad west. His sons Thomas Jr and Joseph, his grandsons Thomas III and Harold, and his great-grandson Michael all worked on the line. Michael, aka Mike or Mick, was the first to enter railroad management. When Mike left Missouri Pacific in 1970 to work for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, it ended 105 years of his family on the MoPac and its predecessors. Mike went on to spend 21 years at Santa Fe, becoming president in 1989, and later 20 years at Kansas City Southern, headquartered in Kansas City. The majority of the Haverty gift is being used to construct a significant new outdoor area—to be named “Haverty Family Yards”— which includes a beautiful new full-acre festival space suitable for community events and activities both large and small. This new space sits in the very footprint of the historic rail yards under Union Station where 18 separate tracks welcomed thousands of trains—starting in 1914—as they operated alongside elevated platforms to deposit millions of passengers—including many immigrants coming to this area—and welcomed aboard millions more traveling throughout the country. As well, during WWII, hundreds of thousands of our military personnel arrived, departed and passed through Union Station on these tracks. “We especially love the idea that our family—including our children and grandchildren who reside in Kansas City—is able to pay tribute
22
Union Station On Track • Winter 2016
to Union Station and railroad history in the very place it happened,” Marlys Haverty, said. “Using reclaimed steel rails and timbers, for example, the artistic screening around Haverty Family Yards will recognize the countless trains that passed across this hallowed ground. For the Haverty family, it’s important to pass that history on to new generations who will come to enjoy this beautiful area for family fun, festivals and concerts and access the new Science City outdoor expansion. Creating new Kansas City experiences tied to Kansas City and railroad history in effect bridges multiple generations together and passes on the best of who we are as a community.”
“From The Haverty Family Yards, in one sweeping view, you’ll see the historic Union Station building, the modern Science City, the downtown skyline and the active Kansas City Terminal tracks where countless daily freight trains of the five major railroads serving Kansas City and Amtrak operate from one part of our country to another,” Mike Haverty said. “We especially love this location as it ties past, present and future together in such a visually compelling way. Union Station is a tremendous bi-state success story and Kansas City’s icon. This new outdoor area will add to and enhance what is already a community treasure.”