The Dark Story Of America's Penn Station The Demolition That Changed Preservation Law Forever

Описание: Pennsylvania Station was America's greatest building—a Beaux-Arts masterpiece with 314-foot waiting room, 150-foot vaulted ceilings, and 84 granite Doric columns designed by Charles McKim in 1902. Pennsylvania Station opened November 27, 1910, after McKim died in 1909 without seeing his Roman-inspired cathedral of transportation complete. Pennsylvania Station survived only 53 years before railroad president Stuart Saunders ordered demolition on October 28, 1963, to build Madison Square Garden and save the dying Pennsylvania Railroad—which collapsed in 1970 bankruptcy anyway. AGBANY protesters fought desperately but failed because New York had no landmarks law. Demolition took three years (1963-1966), dumping McKim's granite columns in New Jersey swamps like trash. Architectural historian Vincent Scully wrote: "One entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat." The destruction sparked New York's Landmarks Preservation Law in 1965—too late for Penn Station but saving Grand Central Terminal and thousands of buildings nationwide. This is the crime that changed preservation law forever.

🏛️ Topics: Charles McKim architect, 1910 opening, Stuart Saunders demolition order, AGBANY protests, Madison Square Garden replacement, 1965 Landmarks Law, Grand Central saved

📍 Seventh Avenue & 33rd Street, Manhattan (1910-1963)

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#gilded age #old money #Pennsylvania Station #documentary