Yesterday was the fortieth anniversary of the start of demolition upon the Pennsylvania Railroad's New York Pennsylvania Station. An article in the New York Times called my attention to it, and the article is a functional, if brief, read.

The demolition of New York Pennsylvania Station was an important thing on several fronts:

Legal, for it would lead to the emergence of the New York City landmarks law wherein places could be designated as cultural landmarks and thus earn a certain measure of protection from radical change being introduced by the owner. The corporate successor to the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Penn Central Transportation Company, went all the way to the United States Supreme Court to fight the landmarks law, ultimately losing. If you're interested, the cite is Penn Cent. Transp. Co. v. New York City, 438 U.S. 104 (197 .

Cultural, in that it led to a repudiation of the relentless urban renewal fad of the 1960s and probably helped kick off the preservation movement nationwide. The eager mindset that readily condemned grand old facilities simply because they were not brand new for once actually had to take a step back. Unfortunately, that step was too late for Pennsylvania Station, but Grand Central Terminal was saved.

Railroading: Once upon a time, railroads spent a lot of money on their flagship terminals. Cincinnati Union Terminal is an example thereof; Washington Union Station and Grand Central Terminal also shows the sheer amount of money that a railroad in the late nineteenth century/early twentieth century would spend to create marble, glass, and iron monuments to themselves.

However, by the 1960s, the railroad industry in general and passenger rail in particular was in bad shape. Passenger service invariably lost money because the rail passenger was becoming a thing of the past. The ever-growing network of Federally-funded roads combined with the Federally-funded air travel industry to put significant nails in the coffin of passsenger rail. The situation got so bad that by 1971, President Nixon authorized the creation of the National Passenger Rail Corporation, popularly known as Amtrak. This Federally-funded agency took over almost all the intercity passenger rail service in America, and tried to maintain a bare minimum of service.

One could almost argue that the demolition of the above-ground Pennsylvania Station was a sign of the shift in railroad focus. No longer would the sprawling passenger terminals designed by men like Raymond Loewy signify the railroads. Gigantic computer-controlled freight yards, devoid of features in many ways, were the future. Amtrak's limited budgets would force them to either abandon the big passenger depots altogether, or would require massive investments from outside entities to preserve them. Indeed, the future Amtrak station would be something different, a product of the 1970s in that it was often small, cramped, and drab. The one I've been to near my law school is like that. It looks like a gas station or a bank from the road, and without the small Amtrak sign, would be mistaken for something completely innocuous.

There is, however, a bright spot in all of this: Plans are currently afoot to modify the operations now centered at the modern (underground) Penn Station, with some relocation to a nearby post office building above ground that approximates the look of the old station as built by Pennsylvania Railroad President Alexander Johnston Cassatt.* I'm not entirely sure what Penn Station v3.0 will look like, but it is good to see a renaissance of sorts in the architecture.

* A.J. Cassatt's other claim to fame, aside from being president of the "Standard Railroad of the World" was being the older brother of Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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