MORE PENN STATION REMNANTS

Kevin Walsh

6 years ago

By GARY FONVILLE
Forgotten NY correspondent

How many of us have walked by this building at 242 W. 31st Street , across from Madison Square Garden, and never gave it a thought? You can include me in that group. This Charles McKim of McKim, Mead & White-designed edifice was of vital importance to the station that took up two complete blocks in midtown Manhattan. As Pennsylvania Station’s service building, it produced electricity, heat, compressed air, refrigeration and elevator hydraulics. In effect, Pennsylvania Station wouldn’t have been able to operate without it.

The destruction of the original Pennsylvania Station is still lamented by many, including me. The upper part of the station has been gone for over fifty years. But thanks to your webmaster Kevin Walsh, many parts of the original station still exist and have been chronicled in FNY.

The Pennsy, as the Pennsylvania Railroad was nicknamed, had a formidable presence in and near NYC. But fifty years after its demise, there are only a FEW places where its moniker can now be seen. Personally, I know of two places where kit can be seen. One is on a building in City Center, Philadelphia which was the former headquarters for the PRR.

This location on Tonnele Avenue in North Bergen, NJ, strategically placed at the western end of the Pennsy’s Hudson River Tunnels, was likely some sort of electrical facility. The building’s sidewalls are clearly visible from Tonnele Avenue. But it can be seen briefly, and I mean briefly, on the right side from trains that are NYC bound. It can be seen on the train’s left side as it exits the tunnel heading south. From what I can see from Tonnele Avenue, it appears the building is unused.

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8/9/18