THE first Pennsylvania Station, which allowed passenger trains to arrive in NYC from across the Hudson and East Rivers, opened to the public in 1910. Prior to that, passengers needed to take ferries from locations such as Hoboken, Jersey City, Long Island City and other locations. The original Penn, designed by McKim, Mead and White, was a cavernous edifice, perhaps overbuilt and hard to maintain, but was nonetheless shamefully demolished in the mid-1960s to make way for #2 Penn Plaza and the current Madison Square Garden, with train service relegated to the basement.
Various plans and schemes have been put forward to make Penn Station more inviting over the years; a current plan proposed by Governor Kathy Hochul would vastly overhaul the station and would largely be paid for by real estate developers, who would erect a flock of “supertall” mixed-use residential/office buildings surrounding it. I hope this plan is either scrapped or severely modified before it’s approved. Its proponents maintain that the century-old buildings in Penn’s immediate vicinity are not equipped technologically to handle modern electronic methods of doing business. However, it would mean the demolition of some landmarked structures on West 30th Street, such as the Church of St. John the Baptist.
Update: real-estate giant Vornado, which was to develop the towers, has decided to pause the plan mentioned above for now (3/10/2023).
The station itself was mostly a blank to me until about 1992. That year I began working in Port Washington, Long Island; however, I mostly caught LIRR trains at Woodside. Occasionally I would enter Penn and its Long Island RR terminal was then largely a dingy mess, with fans blowing around hot humid air in the summer. The LIRR concourse was overhauled in subsequent years with a major change being the introduction of air conditioning. That state of affairs lasted into 2020, when the newest renovation, approved by former governor Andrew Cuomo, began.
Probably the major new addition to the Penn LIRR concourse is the addition of escalators to the corner of 7th Avenue and West 33rd Street. Passengers have a glimpse of the Empire State Building, two blocks away, while ascending. The escalators are marked by maps of the NYC region on the sides. Unfortunately #2 Penn Plaza is also being overhauled and currently, and for the foreseeable future, you’re met by a thicket of construction scaffolds when you arrive on 7th Avenue.
This is also the only bit of sunlight available at Penn Station, as the rest cannot admit sunlight as #2 Penn and Madison Square Garden still stand atop the station. MSG management is in negotiations with the city and state to possibly move, with destinations including Hudson Yards or the current location of the Pennsylvania Hotel, which is being demolished. MSG management would prefer to not move at all.
Ceilings have been raised to a full 18 feet and lighting on the concourse’s west end consists of hundreds of illuminated panels which can change color to celebrate various holidays, as many NYC buildings have lighting that can be changed: many were recently lit blue and yellow, colors of the Ukrainian flag, commemorating the one year anniversary of its resistance to Russian invasion.
One thing is certain in NYC: escalators will break and require servicing, as two of them here.
Looking west from 7th Avenue along the new corridor, which has nearly doubled in width from 30 feet to 57 feet.
Signage in the corridor appears in black, white and the NY State colors, dark blue and gold (orange is also a NY State color). This color scheme, and the new font used on the signage, has also been used in the new Moynihan Station between 8th and 9th Avenues.
The old LIRR concourse employed a “flippy board” with arriving and departing trains which was later modified with LED signs; there is no large board anymore, but plenty of smaller boards placed on pillars such as this one. Note that each Long Island Rail Road line (Babylon, Ronkonkoma, Port Washington, etc.) has its own color.
Here we have elements of the first Penn Station (the brass railings) and the 1990s renovation, in the sculpture of Mercury, the Roman god of commerce and transportation. Many staircases to the tracks still feature brass railings first installed in 1910.
While the Central Corridor allowing admittance to Tracks 13-19, mostly used for LIRR trains, stays the same, the entrance has been given gold paneling and an MTA logo (At least the NY State motto, “Excelsior” isn’t plastered everywhere as it was in Moynihan Station and the 2nd Avenue subway stations; that may have been an Andrew Cuomo-ism.)
A look at new track indicators, which also have a gold framing. These indicator boards show destinations and times of departure.
In February, most businesses had yet to open along the LIRR corridor, but old favorites such as Rose’s Pizza are slated to return. I am hoping for shoeshine place Soleman to return. My Adidas never need shining, but I got all my belts there. Long ago, there was also a shop called Penn Books where I browsed every time I waited for a train and must have purchased dozens of books.
To me, the new corridor is …OK, but in a bland 2020s way. I imagine things will liven up once the shops open along the corridor.
At 8th Avenue is the entrance to the IND subway and further in, Moynihan Train Hall. The subway entrance has been left mostly untouched and provided quite a contrast to the new, streamlined Penn Station LIRR corridor. The Moynihan connection is under-signed and poorly lit. There doesn’t seem to be a more direct method of getting to the Moynihan, which has become somewhat busier now that its food hall and some shops such as Walgreen’s have opened.
I do plan on investigating Grand Central Madison, the new “East Side Access” for the LIRR when i am able, so watch this space.
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2/25/23
23 comments
According to NYT Dolan wants a “permanent” lease
for MSG in the current location. But who knows
what may be going on backstage.
The Port Authority is about to rebuild its bus terminal 7 blocks away. Above Penn Station is a far better place for that bus terminal. Between the MTA the Port Authority the federal funds for Amtrak and NJ Transit we could have a modern Transit hub where bus passengers and train riders make easy connections to subway stations and the rest of the city
There used to be a corridor that ran, I think, from 7th Ave and 33rd Street to 6th Ave. Is there any plan to reopen that?
Would demand an intense police presence or $$$$ for private security.
It was called the Gimbels Passageway because it went alongside that department store and led into its basement sales area. Corridor is still there but closed for security reasons. Gimbels building is the Manhattan Mall.
The Gimbels Passageway was poorly lit by single fluorescent tubes and always smelled of urine. You always walked faster from one end to the other.
I always considered that corridor one of Dante’s Circles of Hell. (Could never decide which one it was.) The disabled wheelchair man with no legs would grab at pedestrians as they walked by. Yikes, did he smell. It was like a horrible sideshow, with each attraction more horrific than the last. Very impressionable upon a young high school kid.
I guess somewhere in there is that long corridor/tunnel that went from the subway to
Penn station.I schlepped along it many a time in the 60s on our way to visit granma
in New Jersey.Schlepp 3 blocks to Borough Hall.Take the train to Herald Sq.Drag yourself
to Penn station.Take the Path train to Hoboken.Get on the Erie Lackawanna for the
seemingly endless ride to Basking Ridge NJ.On those antiques of the EL in the “restrooms”
you could look down through the toilet bowl .and see the train tracks going by.Thats right,
your turds died a horrible death on the tracks below.Never any toilet paper of course,so
you had to get inventive.You could always rip the sleeves off your shirt and use that I guess
***”your turds died a horrible death on the tracks below”***
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
Very informative posting, and great photos. I agree that the current Governor’s proposal for a bunch of supertall office buildings is not feasible and will no doubt need some serious reductions in scope. However, may I add a bit of additional history that will explain why Penn Station has been a political and transportation football since the early 1960s. I’ve been visiting Penn Station since the early 1950s, as a child, casual traveler, regular commuter, railroad employee, and now once again as a casual traveler and transportation historian. I know Penn Station longer than I know my wife of 52 years.
The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), the station’s builder and original owner, was in economic straits beginning in the late 1950s. After World War II competing modes of transportation, specifically highways and airports, were built at public expense and took away business from US railroads. The new Interstate highways, in particular, encouraged truck and long-distance bus travel that competed with railroads. At the same time, the PRR was still a private corporation, and paid taxes to the federal, New York State, and New York City governments.
That said, Penn Station’s site was obviously a very valuable candidate for redevelopment and income production, to offset the PRR’s tax liabilities. Madison Square Garden, then located in an obsolete facility at 50th Street and 8th Avenues, was then looking for a new site. Viola!
In Philadelphia, the PRR’s home city, a similar large scale redevelopment project, Penn Center, was built in the 1950s when an old PRR station in Center City was demolished and replaced with new office buildings. Underneath it, a commuter train terminal from the 1930s remained and made it easy for suburbanites to work in the immediate area.
With Penn Center as a model, the PRR partnered with MSG to create the present collection of buildings to replace the old station. The tracks were always below street level and are still basically unchanged. The new MSG opened in February 1968, and I attended the very first college basketball game there, between my own NYU and Tulane. The same month, the PRR and rival New York Central RR consummated an ill-fated merger that collapsed in June 1970, which eventually led to today’s US railroad pattern – public sector passenger operations and large, private freight carriers that are quite profitable.
Even though Penn Station’s now-three railroads are public sector, it is still a smart move to keep MSG atop Penn Station because it encourages people to travel to Manhattan for leisure purposes, which translates into lots of restaurant meals and tax revenue. I may be bucking many critics today, but to move MSG any distance away from Penn Station is economically unwise. Going across 7th Avenue would be great because MSG could connect directly to the subway/PATH complex at Herald Square, and provide a weather-protected connection between there and Penn.
Sixty years after the old Penn Station was razed, it’s important to keep a magnet like MSG in the area. COVID taught us that. Remote work may be here to stay for some people, but MSG is a New York icon that needs to stay.
Andy, you and Kevin both miss the point. The whole purpose of those whacky proposals is so that they can do various studies and and proposals over the course of a decade or two, in which the which hundreds of millions of dollars (if not billions) opf taxpayer money will be spread around to the pols and their friend’s/family’s/contributors businesses…money can be laundered….no-show jobs can be created….etc. etc., and in the end, either nothing will come of it all, or it will bear no resemblance to anything that was proposed..or will just be corporate welfare for the ‘connected’. Meanwhile, if these crooks wopuld just step out of the way and let the free-market/private enterprise operate, things would get done..and get done fast, and not at taxpayer expense. But of course, then the pols and their cronies, and the unions, and ‘city officials’ etc. might all have to do honest work for a livimng…and we can’t have that. (Funny, so much office space and retail sitting emptyu in Manhattan right now- no one willing to pay the absurd rents, and owners can’t charge less due to loan stipulations and property taxes…and yet that stupid B. wants to create MORE office and retail space?!)
Way to go, Nunzio! After 56 years as a resident, retirement liberated me from all of what you mentioned. Unfortunately, AZ now has a governor who is a Hochul clone, but at least we still have the AZ State Legislature & judges appointed by Governors Brewer & Ducey to protect us from further harm. American politics has become increasingly more “mobbed up” as time passes. Here’s what’s needed:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Network%2f+mad+as+hell!%2fyou+tube&view=detail&mid=70EA0964FB0CCE312F9E70EA0964FB0CCE312F9E&FORM=VIRE
Heh, Redstate, unfortunately, AZ. is a perfect example of why I chose to move to a place where other NYers were not/are not flocking. Ya’d think our former neighbors would have learned, but they didn’t- They just end up making their new abodes into the same Hell that ruined their old one. (Luckily, the gun culture here tends to keep NYers away. Concealed carry without a ‘permit’, and I bought a 30-round magazine for my AK at the box store, along with cat litter, etc. like I was buying a piece of gum (Just in case any NYers show up!)
Nunzio: New Yorkers migrate to Florida, not AZ. Since relocating here in 2005 I’ve encountered extremely few Ny’ers (7 they usually come from upstate). Most refugees come from the midwest or inland CA. Except for Chicago types, the midwesterners are great. The inland Californians are too & they’re committed to making their last stand here. Anyone from the Pacific NW is suspect; they’re so self-righteous you’d think they came from eastern Canada. Our problems in AZ originate in Maricopa & Pima counties where a bizarre coalition of Democrats & McCainiacs (extreme Never-Trumpers) have invented schemes that alter election results in their favor. Outside of Pinal Co, where I live, my vote doesn’t really count. At this point, AZ has regressed to its old corrupt territorial self (remember AZ & NM were the last two states of the lower 48 to be granted statehood due to years of near lawlessness). Absent a latter-day Wyatt Earp & Doc Holiday AZ will be one big Tomb Stone.
A short-cut to Moynihan from the east end of the LIRR concourse is to ride the down escalator to Track 13, walk along the track to the west end, then ride the up escalator directly into Moynihan train hall.
Assuming the escalators are, you know, working …
OHhhh, that’s typical NY. How long had Penn Station been that the dank ugly not-even-utilitarian basement utility passage? Decades…with a few minor clean-ups…err…I mean “overhauls” over the years, which never seemed to accomplish anything except inconvenience commuters and make it even uglier for the years that it took to do the few weeks worth of work. Now, after how many years? it looks like they just slapped a fresh coat of paint on it and put in a few little baubles- and that took HOW many years to accomplish? So glad I got the F out of NY a few decades ago! There’s so little left of the interesting old NY these days, that even this sight is loosing it’s charm and I just get disgusted when I look at the modern pics.
Penn Station has been an absolute disaster. Until recently, as the Moynihan Station opened, and now the renovation to the rest of the LIRR part of Penn Station is nearing completion, As you can tell from the photos accompanying this article, there is real progress here. I use Penn Station all the time, and I can really tell that progress has been made to make this station tolerable.
“The new MSG opened in February 1968,…
I was in the first HS track meet at the “New” Garden and won a bronze medal for finishing in third place in the Midget (you had to be under 112 pounds to compete) 50 yard dash. Problem was the straight-away was only 46 yards long. I got to the Garden early and was recruited to assist in the measurement of the straight-away. I pointed this out to an official and he said it didn’t matter, no one would notice.
When he saw me at the starting line he realized that someone did notice.
Anyway, screw the LIRR. The Billions should have been spent on the subway and bus lines. Especially the rapid
transit in Staten Island and the bus service in eastern Queens.
Wish a bookstore would come back, but I’m not holding my breath.
Kevin, thank you for your usual thorough and enlightening coverage. Andy, thank you for your informed and reflective comments. We are shaped by the history of what has happened before us and by how we respond to changing times within which we live. The current Penn Station is one such example. It was built in a very different time to serve a demand that no longer exists. It is unfortunate that it was out-sized and became economically unrealistic to maintain as a private sector facility. (That does not diminish the tragic loss of its demolition.)
It is correct to acknowledge that there is a symbiotic relationship between MSG and the commuter rail terminals below it. Relocation of any great distance would be an economic nightmare for the area and a transportation nightmare for attendees at any newly relocated MSG.
The grand plans for the area, including a nearby MSG relocation, were started well before the Covid-19 Pandemic. At the time they made some sense. Our newly developed workplace and remote work models have changed all that and the developers and our government leaders need to recognize this fact as they look to the future.
All things change over time. Some of us adapt to how things change and remain as part of the solution. Others adapt by changing their lifestyles or by moving to where they feel more comfortable. It has been this way since man was living in caves thousands of years ago.
This is not a political forum or cnnspiracy theory blog,why are you printing them ?
“cnnspiracy”?! A typo on your part or is this a reference to the cable news outlet that lacks an audience? As for why the editor prints what you can’t tolerate: though you either don’t know or don’t care The Bill of Rights embeds freedom of speech, religion & assembly in American culture. Your dismissal of Constitutional rights is the true threat, & my response to your self-righteous tyranny is contained in the scene from “Network” which I posted
on 2/27/23.