The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station

by Lorraine B. Diehl, Ada Louise Huxtable (Foreword)

This work traces the history of the creation, operation, and demolition of New York's Pennsylvania Station.

Genres: Architecture, History, New York, Nonfiction, Transport

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful, informative book about the creation and ultimate destruction of New York City's Pennsylvania Station makes for a sad read indeed. The tear-down of Pennsylvania Station in 1963 was what one critic called "an act of civic vandalism," and in examining the many extraordinary photographs of the interior and exterior of Penn featured here it becomes clear why. Designed by the great architect Charles Follen McKim (of the famous firm McKim, Mead & White), Pennsylvania Station was meant to be a magnificent entranceway to the city. Now one is welcomed by the scandalously crowded and compressed (with 15-foot ceilings) rat maze that replaced the old station, "a bleak parody of railroad stations in general and a tragic joke in comparison with its magnificent predecessor," as Lorraine B. Diehl writes.

Besides documenting the history of the building, the book describes the 19th-century genesis of the idea of trying to create a rail line that would run from New Jersey into Manhattan and then beyond into Long Island, thus replacing the inconvenient transfer from train to ferry. Diehl goes into considerable and intriguing detail describing the engineering feat of tunneling beneath the East and Hudson Rivers. While I didn't understand all the technical aspects of this venture, it's worth knowing, and I learned a great deal about the movers and shakers who realized this long-held dream, including Alexander Cassatt (1839-1906), the President of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Sadly, he did not live to see the 1910 opening of the monumental station that he envisioned. Nor did Charles McKim, who died in September 1909 at the age of 62. However, a statue of Cassatt was erected in the arcade of Pennsylvania Station.

If there was any good that came out of the destruction of Penn Station, it was the ignition of a movement to preserve historic buildings in New York, and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law, was created in April 1965 by Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. following the destruction of Pennsylvania Station the previous year.

I zipped through this history in three days because of my fascination with the material and because of Lorraine Diehl's lively, authoritative narrative. The book was first published in 1985, but there is nothing dated about it. Heartily recommended.

[Herm Stippich · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do you rate a book that so romantically describes an edifice you fall in love with … even if you’ve never been there … knowing it will die in the end? First rate history and photos. A great read for any lover of NYC and it’s past.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done, an interesting read, with appropriate photos, etc.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written - lots of pictures but more would have been even better. It made me sad that something so beautifully built is no longer standing.

[Abbieprime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking narrative of New York City's Pennsylvania Station, from the engineering feats of tunneling beneath the East and Hudson Rivers (I didn't realize just how many men died in the tunnels that takes me to work each day) and the elaborate grandeur of McKim, Mead & White's terminal building, to its wasteful and ultimately pointless destruction, victim of Robert Moses's bulldozer philsophy. The text is good, but the photographs are the true prize, preserving views that are otherwise completely gone.

[Camille Maio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel a little breathless after finishing this book. I knew what would happen - the devastating destruction of such a beautiful building, but the journey from its founds to its end made me feel it all the more. I read this for a research project, and learned so very much.