I found an article today about plans that New York City is contemplating: to enhance the current incarnation of Penn Station by improving and enlarging its lower levels where Long Island Railroad commuters struggle with its current limitations. I will post some pictures of the magnificent original Penn Station, a sculptural wonder of glass and iron, which someone decided should be torn asunder in order to replace it with a huge and ordinary building. The terrible days began exactly when I was commuting to my first job in New York as they began knocking down those huge stone columns that held the whole place so perfectly.
It would have been in 1962 when I first began to commute daily to New York City. I had graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1961, commuting daily from Long Island to Brooklyn for four years. And after graduating from Pratt, I took courses at a business school in New York City, learning something called Speedwriting, and typing...I quite liked it. Following that, I found a job I also quite liked: Simplicity Pattern Company. Simplicity's offices were on two floors of a tall building right alongside Altman's department store. I still felt myself to be an artist, but something about the regular world of business and commerce was easing to my mind. But this also had much to do with what occurred just then: something so unexpected happened to my older sister Cynthia: after years of intelligent schoolwork in high school, four more years at Barnard College where she majored in Art History, and years' long study of ballet, at which she was considered very gifted, she developed something pretty terrible: schizophrenia. A world changing event for herself, and for all of us in the family. And that had a lot to do with my ease and comfortableness in going in every day to work in a regular and predictable world. Though I was not overwhelmed with interest in fashion, I did like my job as Secretary to the Fabric Editor, Norma...I liked them all: Norma, her Assistant Editor, Nancy and the other member of our staff, Judy: so agreeable that I found going to work to be a kind of balm to soothe the sense of worry that hung over our family. The four of us often ate lunch at our desks from local coffee shops.and laughed a lot. Down one hallway was the advertising department and down the other, a host of stylists who came in to our office daily and frequently to browse through file upon file of all the current fabrics that the garment industry was purveying that season. Will write a little more about this world up ahead...
Meanwhile, here are several archival photos of Penn Station:
10 comments:
I am posting here under "comments" that I saw an excellent article in yesterday's NYTimes about Penn Station: here are a few excerpts:
New York
August 30, 2022
By Matthew Haag
Reporter, Metro
Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll look at the massive real estate project that New York State wants to build around Pennsylvania Station and where those buildings would rank among the city’s tallest.
Further to the story about the Penn Station project: here are the three lovely churches in Matthew Haag's article...it would seem they might be vulnerable if the project happens...I remember sitting in one of these churches on a time when I felt vulnerable, back then, walking from Simplicity over to Penn Station for my Long Island Railroad train home...to see the beautiful photos of these churches, go to Haag's article in the Times.
1. St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church
The Gothic-style church is of sandstone, with arched windows and doorways, along with stained glass windows including a rose window. On the 30th Street side, an original rectory was replaced by a more modern building which formerly housed the Capuchin Monastery of the Church of St. John. According to the EIS report, ” The church meets Criterion C as an example of Gothic-inspired ecclesiastical architecture. In an Environmental Review letter dated December 14, 2020, LPC determined that the church also appears to be eligible for NYCL designation.” It sits on the same block as the Penn Station Service Building and is listed as having “Significant Adverse Impact from Development on Site 2,” stated as a building that “would be removed for the proposed below-grade expansion of Penn Station.”
8. St. Francis Roman Catholic Church
This beautiful complex of St. Francis Roman Catholic Church is located at 129-143 West 31st Street. It was built starting in 1891 in a Renaissance Revival style by Henry Ehrhardt. The church has stained glass windows and mosaics. It is surrounded on the left by east by the Franciscan Fathers monastery and on the west by the School of St. Francis of Assisi, both built about a decade after the church.
According to the EIS report, “The church complex meets Criterion C as an intact example of Renaissance Revival style architecture. There are later, non-contributing additions to the complex at 129 West 31st Street and to the rear of the church on West 32nd Street. In an Environmental Review letter dated December 14, 2020, LPC determined complex also appears eligible for NYCL designation.” This site would be affected by “Potential Adverse Construction-Related Impacts from Construction on Sites 3, 7, and 8; Shadows Impact from Development on Sites 3 and 8.”
9. St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church Complex
St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church Complex
St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church was already once the victim of development at Penn Station. Its original structure was demolished to make way for the Penn Station rail yard (which is now covered over by Manhattan West). The Pennsylvania Railroad paid for the construction of the new limestone and brick church complex at 414-424 West 34th Street, built between 1905 and 1906. This complex was also designed by Napoleon LeBrun and Sons, consisting of a church, rectory, school, convent and vestry.
According to the EIS report, “The church complex is significant under Criterion A for its association with the area’s historical development and under Criterion C for its architectural design. In an Environmental Review letter dated December 14, 2020, LPC determined that the church complex also appears eligible for NYCL designation.” This building. would be affected by “Shadows Impact from Development on Sites 1 and 2.”
The photos are all beautiful, I tried but could not copy them into this comment, but glad to post the information!
If you go to the Matthew Haag article in the Times, you can see photos of these three churches, the photos appeared in the Times article. Will also post the various photos I have saved from many other sites of the old station in its wonderful years. I also remember a marvelous long countered breakfast restaurant right on 7th Avenue...long, long counters where myriad of commuters and more long-distance travelers could have a great breakfast with wonderful coffee before they ventured forth. I often sat there with coffee before rushing on to my job there at Simplicity.
In the excerpts from Matthew's Haag's New York Times article that appear in one of my comments above, he explains how each of the three churches have been evaluated over the years and he mentions that St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church "was already once the victim of development at Penn Station."
Note that in Haag's paragraphs about the three churches, he mentions the architecture and the architects who created them, the innate value of them in terms of beauty and history, and certainly the New Yorkers who would/will miss them greatly. (Also note the information he provides about the EIS reports.)
Thank you for sharing these moments in time! Fascinating to read about old NYC, and what your life was like back then!
One of the memorable trips I took on the Long Island Rail Road in those days commuting from NYC to Long Island started out in an ordinary way: I walked swiftly from 32nd Street over to 7th Avenue and 34th, to make, just in time, the 5:17 train to Merrick (my job every day was from 8:45 to 4:45 and I was able to make the crosstown walk within a half hour!) So I was on the train, fortunately getting a seat which sometimes was not the case (some commuters commenting on how many "standees"were there in the aisles.) But this time, I had a seat and was ready to read my paper or a book, when the train lurched to a stop. It was November and already getting dark out. And we all assumed it was the usual LIRR "working on the tracks" syndrome and everyone was annoyed but didn't think it too unusual. But after an hour or so went by, and the conductor walking through the car would not or could not answer anyone's questions, it looked like something bad was happening...and so it was...the big blackout of November 9, 1965. It was cold in the car I was sitting in and a dreary view out the dark window that was right alongside houses and stores in Long Island City. (writing more in another comment...)
Such an interesting post! The original Penn station must have been incredible. Such a shame it was torn down and replaced with such an unremarkable building. Although I have great memories of our trips out to Merrick from Penn station!
More photos coming of Penn Station...
I am adding, once again, another comment, this: about the sister to Penn Station, Grand Central Station.
I have a file here in my apartment consisting of wonderful articles I've been collecting for years: many from the New York Times...anything fascinating about New York. Among these was an article about Grand Central Station that appeared on January 20,2013 in the New York Times Sunday Paper, page 1 of the Metropolitan Section. First, a huge picture of Grand Central's ceiling with its blue/green backdrop for the great constellations, the headline reading, in white letters, "100 Years of Grandeur". The article is written by San Roberts, the urban affairs correspondent for the Times, and is an excerpt from his book: "Grand Central, How A Train Station Transformed America", about to be published in 2013 by Grand Central Publishing. (Roberts is the urban affairs correspondent for the Times.) The article tells of the great complexity of the building plans, the giant sculptural figures, and all the innovative designs making it so efficient for travelers. He says "When Grand Central was finally finished, the only thing lacking was adjectives. The Times produced a special section of the newspaper and hailed the terminal as "a monument, a civic center, or, if one will, a city.' " Roberts had said: "Grand Central Terminal, opened a century ago next month, was the dream of a little-known engineer whose vision helped shape New York and the modern imagination." The story, continuing on Pages 6 and 7, has much marvelous information, including a lovely quote by writer Tom Wolfe: "Every big city had a railroad station with grand - to the point of glorious - classical architecture dazzled and intimidated, the great architects of Greece and Rome would have averted their eyes - featuring every sort of dome, soaring ceiling, king-size column, royal cornice, lordly echo - thanks to the immense volume of the spaces - and the miles of marble, marble, marble - but the grandest, most glorious of all, by far, was Grand Central Station."
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