New York history buffs will be interested to know that this month, September 2010, marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of Penn Station. No, not the subterranean labyrinth that we now know as Penn Station—that one opened in 1968—but the magnificent Beaux-Arts style marble terminus, the largest building ever erected for rail travel, commissioned by Pennsylvania Railroad president Alexander Cassatt (the brother of the famous Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt) and built by the renowned architectural firm McKim, Mead & White.
Taking up two entire city blocks in midtown Manhattan, from 7th to 8th Avenues and 31st to 33rd streets, the grand edifice boasted a 150-foot ceiling in its 277- foot long waiting room, which was inspired by the Roman Baths of Caracalla and the Basilica of Constantine. Comprising nine acres of granite and travertine marble shipped in from Italy, the building was lined by exterior colonnades that recalled the Basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome, giving it the appearance of, in McKim’s words, “a monumental gateway and entrance to one of the great Metropolitan cities of the world.”
Adolph Alexander Weinman (American, 1870-1952). Night, Clock Figure from Pennsylvania Station, 31st to 33rd Streets between 7th and 8th Avenues, NYC, ca. 1910. Pink granite, 132 x 86 x 42 in. (335.3 x 218.4 x 106.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Lipsett Demolition Co. and Youngstown Cartage, 66.250.1. Creative Commons-BY-NC
Now on display in the Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden, this 11-foot female figure once stood beside a huge clock that greeted travelers entering the station. Each of the station’s four pedestrian entryways was surmounted by one of these clocks, and each clock was flanked by two allegorical female figures representing time, carved in pink granite. Day held a sunflower while the hooded Night bore a drooping poppy. These magnificent figures, in addition to the 22 perched eagles that dotted the roofline, were all designed by the sculptor Adolf A. Weinman.
Charles Follen McKim. Partial Column, from Penn Station, 31st to 33rd Streets between 7th and 8th Avenues, NYC (demolished 1964), ca. 1910. Travertine marble, 145 x 136 in. (368.3 x 345.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Youngstown Cartage Co. and New York Improvement & Development, 66.250.2. Creative Commons-BY-NC
Installed at the lower level of the Sculpture Garden is a 14-foot partial column from the station’s interior. Carved from travertine marble, it was one of six 35-foot-high Ionic columns that flanked each of the stairways leading to the main waiting room. This photo, which shows the columns at the far end, gives you an impression of the sheer size and monumentality of this light-filled space.
Penn Station, Waiting Hall Facing 33rd Street Entrance, 1910, photograph, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University
Penn Station was sadly demolished starting in 1963, after less than 50 years of service, taken apart piece by piece over three years. The façade sculptures by Weinman were carted to a landfill in the New Jersey Meadowlands along with the rest of the rubble-sculptural elements, marble columns, and all. (The circumstances surrounding the demolition have been eloquently recorded in a number of places, including one season 3 episode of Mad Men; Lorraine Diehls’s The Late Great Penn Station; and one of my top reads from this summer, Rubble, a history of demolition written by Jeff Byles.)
But Penn Station had many fans, who, though unable to stop the demolition, were instrumental in salvaging many important elements from the building. The Museum’s Penn Station fragments in particular were rescued from the dump through the efforts of Ivan Karp and the Anonymous Arts Recovery Society. Night and Penn Station Column were two of the first and most important pieces to be installed the former Frieda Schiff Warburg Sculpture Garden, which opened in 1966.
A number of other Penn Station elements were salvaged as well. The Museum also owns two decorative plaques (currently not on view) taken from the exterior walls. Many of the eagle sculptures have been located at various metropolitan locations on the eastern seaboard.
Of the four original clock figures, one pair now forms the centerpiece of the Eagle Scout Memorial Fountain in Kansas City, Missouri. A second pair is planned for use in a renovation of a Newark, New Jersey, train station; and a Day figure (possibly the companion to the Museum’s Night) was found in 1995 by the Bronx-based Con Agg Recycling Corporation. The fourth pair is still unlocated.
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Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum
It is sad and troublesome to learned that a building with such beauty and exceptional artforms in the center of the City could become vulnarable enough that is demolished and taken apart. And no person or group would stopped the madness.Unbelievably sad.
What a beautiful reminder of history – wish it was still around intact.
Thks for the history lesson on a stunning architectural part of NYC…and now I know where that Column that greets me every morning came from….
The article states that the statuary was “carved in pink granite.” That is incorrect. The quarry stone is Marble, quite possibly Knoxville Marble. An early 1900s article in Monumental News tells about the Penn Station statuary being carved from Knoxville Marble. Also, I have a letter dated September 2, 1994 from the Smithsonian Institution, it was confirmed to me that the quarry stone for the Penn Station eagle located outside of the National Zoo is indeed marble. The Director of the National Zoological Park, Michael H. Robinson, stated in the letter to me “we will eventually amend the plaque to state that it is marble…” Maybe you should have someone with the Brooklyn Museum who is familiar with mineralogy inspect the museum’s figure of DAY and state an opinion. David Morrison
Thanks for this information, David. Since its arrival in 1966, the sculpture has been listed in our records as being made of pink granite, and all the major sources on Penn Station state that the station was carved from travertine marble and Milford pink granite. But Monumental News—an early 20th century trade journal for the monument industry–certainly would be a good source for this information.
Not being a geologist myself, I consulted with the Museum’s objects conservator, Lisa Bruno, who told me that granite and marble can look very similar at times. However, when the sculpture was cleaned in 2004, the conservation team determined that the stone was, in fact, Tennessee marble.
This is what Lisa told me: “Part of the treatment was to remove gypsum crusts (calcium sulphate), a by-product of pollution and acid rain. Calcium carbonate (limestone or marble) + pollution = calcium sulphate. Granite is a silica based rock–nothing calcareous about it–so you will never have gypsum crust on granite.”
I have not yet found specifics on the sculptor Adolf Weinman regarding this commission, but it looks as though he may have purchased his own Tennessee marble for the eagles and the clock figures that he carved, while the rest of the building was made in either Milford granite or travertine marble.
We will update the information on the website asap, but it will take a little longer to update the object label. Thanks so much for your comments.
Is any penn station fragments and salvage still out to see or has it been put away.
I wish I could see you then and now pictures of Penn Station. For example a photograph taken in some spot in the station before 1963 and the same exact spot today. I see so many old photographs of Penn and when I go to the station these days I try to pin where exactly that old photograph was taken. I wonder if anyone evere filmed old Penn Station . It would be amazing if somebody actually entered Penn Station from seventh Avenue I walked around the whole station. Then exited eighth Avenue. I wonder if there’s any films out there. Maybe even home movies. I wonder if even any of the construction workers who took part in the demolition took any photographs or home movies. Unfortunately the way society thinks it would be labeled wired for a construction worker or a person employed at Penn Station to bring in a movie camera. So most likely as a result There probably is no film of the original Penn station. I am just hoping against all odds there might be something out there.
If some people cannot understand my above comment forgive me. My I-phone has an option where you can speak into the phone instead of typing and unfortunately the sentences do not always come out right. I wish somebody could’ve filmed that whole station. Unfortunately probably due to coworker peer pressure Possibly from looking odd or weird No film was probably ever done.
I was thinking of going myself and doing exactly that. Penn station before and after. Because there are a lot of existing staircases left and glass floors
Hey Richard:
How ’bout approaching it from the Hollywood film angle? Research films that include interiors of Penn Station. A montage might be nice. Just a quick thought, haven’t followed up on it at all.
-Robert Ebbs
All those who miss the old Penn Station NY
MUST!!!! Watch this CGI short.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQQVtOYgXeo