Penn Station, 1910 [video]
“Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves. Even when we had Penn Station, we couldn’t afford to keep it clean. We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tinhorn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed.”
NYT: Farewell to Penn Station, 1963
capitalnewyork:
On that 86-degree summer evening 50 years ago, commuters were greeted by the sight of more than 100 buttoned-down and white-gloved protesters marching around the colossal colonnade at the station’s entrance.
“Save Penn Station,” their signs said, in nicely formed letters. (Architects. Of course.) “Don’t Sell Our City Short.” “Save Our Heritage.” “Action Not Apathy.”
(Photo by Eddie Hausner)
More of the gloriously-designed Penn Station.
Pennsylvania Station, New York, by McKim, Mead & White. Demolished.
Photo by engineer turned architectural photographer, Norman McGrath.
