Pennsylvania Station

Manhattan, United States

No longer standing

Demolished or destroyed.

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Pennsylvania Station was a Beaux-Arts railroad terminus in Midtown Manhattan, occupying an 8-acre plot between Seventh and Eighth Avenues and 31st and 33rd Streets. Designed by the prominent architectural firm McKim, Mead & White and completed in 1910, the station was built for the Pennsylvania Railroad and enabled direct rail access to New York City from the south for the first time. Clad in Roman travertine, its above-ground head house and train shed ranked among the city's finest architectural achievements and featured monumental classical elements including Doric ordering. Below ground, the station contained 11 platforms serving 21 tracks and pioneered the separation of arriving and departing passenger facilities in novel, expansive public spaces. Declining ridership after World War II prompted the railroad to sell air rights in the 1950s, leading to the demolition of the historic above-ground structure between 1963 and 1966—a loss that catalyzed the modern preservation movement in America. The underground platforms and concourses were then heavily renovated to form the present Penn Station, while Madison Square Garden was constructed above.