Montgomery Visitor Center

The staff here are all very friendly, helpful and informative. The trolley tour that leaves from the visitor center is narrated and full of interesting information about the history and sights of the city. The tour is 45 minutes long round trip but the tour is a hop on hop off ride making it a very convenient way to get around the city.

This is a beautiful building on the Riverwalk. I walked past many times on my morning walk but only got to visit briefly almost at closing time. This visitor centre is very informative, yet modern. I will return.

I highly recommend everyone and anyone visiting Montgomery Alabama to start their day at the Visitor Center at the OLD UNION TRAIN STATION on the riverfront. If you go on Saturday, the parking is FREE here and every where downtown even the meters, so that is good to know. We parked and went inside. It opens at 9am and closes at 5pm.
This building is the old UNION STATION and also the Train Shed for the Electric Street cars. There is a lot of history in the beautiful old building. The inside is lovely. It is full of brochures and ideas of what to visit. There is a brief video to watch, bathrooms, information and gift shop. So definitely stop. The two ladies inside was very helpful and gave us a really detailed map for walking or you can catch a bus for $ 3 and get off and on all you need to.
History of the Union Station building:
Union Station, also known as Montgomery Union Station or Montgomery Union Station and Trainshed, in Montgomery, Alabama was built by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and opened in 1898. Erected of brick and limestone on a high bluff along the Alabama River, the station also served passenger trains of Atlantic Coast Line, Western Railway of Alabama, Seaboard Air Line, Central of Georgia, and Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad.
The station had six tracks under a 600 foot shed, with a coach yard on the south end of the station as well as a Railway Express Agency facility. The station’s design segregated passengers by race and incorporated Romanesque Revival elements
The number of passenger trains using Union Station declined during the 1950s and 1960s. When Amtrak came into existence in 1971, it continued passenger service through Montgomery with a single train (the South Wind, later renamed the Floridian), operating between Chicago and Miami. However, this train was terminated in 1979 and Union Station was closed.
After a period of disuse, Union Station was renovated for commercial tenants. The train shed still stands, although tracks under it have been replaced by asphalt parking. Declared National Historic Site in 1976
Amtrak returned to Montgomery in 1989 with an extension of the Crescent called the Gulf Breeze from Birmingham to Mobile; but Union Station was not used. Instead, Amtrak contracted with a travel agent who occupied a former grain silo near Union Station. This Amtrak service was terminated in 1995, and Montgomery has had no passenger rail service since.
Among other tenants, Union Station currently hosts the Montgomery Area Visitor Center.