AFTER several years of discussion and planning, Penn Station’s western concourse was extended to encompass Amtrak tracks and limited LIRR, and is now known as the Moynihan Train Hall, after the late U.S. Senator from New York Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who championed the project. It created new entrances at the southwest corner of 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue and at 8th Avenue and 31st Street. The entrances have escalators, elevators and stairs to the platforms. Plans to turn the Post Office building into the new Penn Station had been on the books for years, and the Moynihan opened to the public on January 1, 2021.
The post office functions formerly in the James Farley building, named for the 1930s Postmaster General who expanded the building to a full city block, moved several years ago to the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center a few blocks away on 9th Avenue and West 29th Street. The public postal windows on the 8th Avenue side remain as they have always been, with the remainder of the building converted to the Moynihan Train Hall as well as retail and office space. Facebook has signed a lease to relocate its headquarters in the building.
I always had an affinity for these postal windows: the corridor has been pretty much unchanged for decades, and a recent renovation actually updated the windows area and continued the old style. This area has kept most of the features it had when constructed in 1912 and reminds you of Grand Central Terminal, which was opened the following year. This is in the running for the most attractive of NYC’s many post offices, though I am partial to Flushing, with its painted depictions of Queens neighborhoods. Until 2009 these were the only Post Office windows in NYC that were open all day, 24/7. That meant the Post Office would be in the news each April 15, as last-minute tax filers congregated here to get their returns postmarked by 11:59.
I mailed a lot more envelopes back in 2000-2004, when I worked a couple of blocks away at Macy’s, and I could frequently be found here as well as at the now-demolished Cheyenne Diner at 9th Avenue and West 33rd.
I have a more complete look at the windows area, and its new connection to Moynihan Station, on this FNY page.
Check out the ForgottenBook (HarperCollins, 2006), as well as Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013). I also have a chapter in the anthology “New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg” (Reaktion, 2007). As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site, which helps in site upkeep and also aids Greater Astoria Historical Society.
11/3/26