Pennsylvania Station

Active

Address

Block bounded by Seventh and Eighth Avenues and 31st and 33rd Streets

GPS

40.750508637834, -73.99363905212

I took dinner usually at the Yale Club—for some reason it was the gloomiest event of my day—and then I went upstairs to the library and studied investments and securities for a conscientious hour. There were generally a few rioters around, but they never came into the library, so it was a good place to work. After that, if the night was mellow, I strolled down Madison Avenue past the old Murray Hill Hotel, and over 33rd Street to the Pennsylvania Station.
I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night, and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye.

The Great Gatsby

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Opened in 1910 as the great terminal of the Pennsylvania Railroad, it was designed by McKim, Mead & White as an academic masterpiece, conceived to bring trains from the south to Manhattan for the first time through tunnels under the rivers. In the 1920s, it was a monumental gateway to the city, with impressive waiting rooms and concourses. In 1963 part of its structure was demolished and the station underwent a severe remodelling that became a symbol of architectural loss in the city and marked a turning point in public awareness about preserving New York architecture.

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