The Tragic Lost of Penn Station and The Reimagined Moynihan Train Hall

Updated: Dec 3, 2023

The romance and beauty of Penn Station would make anyone be wistful for the past.

The Pennsylvania Railroad built a monumental train station that was meant to stand the test of time but 53 years later, it would be in tatters, destroyed by progress. Commuters would wallow in the subterranean mess of the current version of Penn Station for more than five decades. That is until 2021 when the new and improved Moynihan Train Hall opened. Let's look at the evolution of Penn Station. How an architectural marvel was lost to the ages and then reimagined for the twenty-first century.

During the late 1880s into the 20th Century, the railroad was king. Trains were the major transportation mode to move people, mail, and goods across the nation. The Vanderbilts' New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) became the largest transportation companies by acquiring and consolidating other railroad lines. At one point their combined yearly budgets were only second to the U.S. government.

New York Central's headquarters were located in Manhattan. The company already had a strong footprint with its Grand Central Station. The Vanderbilts had built and expanded this station numerous times, never seeming to have enough space. So in 1903, construction began for an ambitious and much larger Grand Central Terminal. The Pennsylvania Railroad's president, Alexander Cassatt knew that to compete with the NY Central, PRR needed its mid-Manhattan railroad hub. Cassatt hired the prominent architecture firm of McKim, Mead, and White. This firm had designed, too much acclaim, the Boston Public Library and had recently completed a renovation of the White House.

New York Public Library Digital Collection

Cassatt had imagined a station that was as large and impressive as the Gare d'Orsay in Paris. McKim worked closely with Cassatt to create this ambitious plan. Construction began on Penn Station in 1904. McKim hoped to create a space that would celebrate "the entrance to one of the great metropolitan cities of the world." ** After six years of construction, the station was completed in 1910 to the marvel of the city.

At the time it was built, Penn Station was the largest public space in the world spanning 8 acres with palatial waiting rooms that were above ground and the unsightly tracks below. The station had 11 platforms and 21 tracks which could accommodate up to 144 trains per hour. By 1911, millions of passengers had traveled through Penn Station.*

Museum d'Orsay formerly Gare d'Orsay Source Unknown

New York Public Library Digital Collection

Around the Great Depression, Penn Station would have a reversal of fortune but it rebounded during World War II when millions of soldiers and sailors were transported due to the war effort. This era would be the last time that the Pennsylvania Railroad would be profitable. Starting in the 1950s, automobiles, interstate highways, and commercial air travel became a more convenient way to travel for most Americans. The Pennsylvania Railroad, in dire financial trouble, began looking for a way to offload their station and sought to sell the air rights. Those air rights would spell doom for McKim's Penn Station.*

But at the mid-century point, Penn Station was in terrible shape and had been in decline for many years. The ornate pink granite exterior had become blackened, coated with dirt and soot. In the late 1950s, some of the stately columns were covered in plastic in an ill-advised renovation. Advertisements began to cover the walls.** The glorious Penn Station kept sliding further into disrepair and the Pennsylvania Railroad was allowing it to happen.

When the air rights were finally sold, Penn Station was a shell of its former self. The Pennsylvania Railroad made the argument to the city that the cost to maintain the station was too expensive and unsustainable. For progress and the benefit of all commuters and future passengers, the above-ground part of Penn Station had to go to make room for a modern facility.

The Pennsylvania Railroad had made a lucrative deal to create a smaller station below street level at no cost to the company. However, it needed to get the city's approval to move forward on the future construction of Madison Square Garden. PRR's biggest selling point to the city was a new, air-conditioned facility. Consequently, Pennsylvania Railroad would no longer have to bear the cost of maintaining the notable but run-down Penn Station.*"*

When the talk of tearing down Penn Station became a reality, disbelief and outrage galvanized the public. Unfortunately, all the protests, hearings, and rallies were too late and could not save this landmark. Demolition began in 1963. Ada Louise Huxtable, the New York Times architecture critic, wrote, "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."***

Credit: Aaron Rose via Museum of The City of New York

Years later, Michael Kimmelman, also from The New York Times, would compare the demolition of the Penn Station to that of the old Waldorf–Astoria. The original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was destroyed for the construction of the Empire State Building. Kimmelman claimed that Penn Station's decimation broke a long tradition of New Yorkers accepting that "what replaced a beloved building would be as good or better."** After the loss of Penn Station, New Yorkers never forgot this travesty and labored to make sure this would never happen again. In 1965, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission was created. This commission was instrumental in saving architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings including the other magnificent train station, Grand Central Terminal.*

SOM/ Office of Governor Cuomo

Not surprisingly, time has not been kind to Penn Station. For decades there were discussions on how to change the inferior train station back to its former grandeur. Finally, the state of New York decided to step in to remedy the situation. After three years of construction and a budget of 1.6 billion dollars, the Moynihan Train Hall opened on January 1, 2021. The new facility was built inside and under the James A. Farley Post Office building. The Farley building was also designed by McKim, Mea,d and White and fashioned to compliment the original Pennsylvania Station.****

The Moynihan Train Hall was named after the late New York U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan who for decades pushed for a replacement for the Penn Station building. He always thought the demolition of this awe-inspiring edifice was a colossal mistake.*****