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The Bowery Boys: New York City History

#255 The Rescue of Grand Central

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.73.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2018

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The survival of New York City's greatest train station is no accident. The preservation of Grand Central Terminal helped create the protections for all of America's greatest landmarks.  By the 1950s, this glorious piece of architecture -- opened in 1913 as a sensational example of Beaux-Arts architecture -- was severely unloved and truly run down. It was also in danger. Long distance railroad travel was no longer fashionable and its real estate seemed better suited for a trendier skyscraper. With the destruction of Penn Station in the mid-1960s, it seemed Grand Central was next. Let's make room for progress! So how did it manage to survive? In this episode, we welcome our special guest Kent Barwick, the former executive director of the Municipal Art Society, who was there, in the middle of the fight to save Grand Central. He joins us to talk about the preservation battle and the importance of one particular ally -- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It certainly took thousands of people -- idealists, activists and regular New Yorkers -- to save this iconic building. But how did this one woman of great renown and prominence bring her personal history into the building, all in earnest efforts to save it?  boweryboyshistory.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0

The Bowry Boys Episode 255, the rescue of Grand Central.

0:04.8

Hey, it's the Bowry Boys.

0:06.4

Hey.

0:07.6

Support for the Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners.

0:11.2

Join us for as little as a dollar a month

0:13.6

by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.

0:20.3

Hi there, welcome to the Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.

0:22.8

And this is Tom Myers.

0:24.1

And today we thought we'd spend more time

0:27.5

in yet another world famous train station.

0:30.7

Last week we regrettably saw the demise of Penn Station.

0:36.0

This week we're stepping into yet another great train station,

0:40.7

Grand Central Terminal.

0:42.4

Last week we covered the sad fate of beautiful Penn Station,

0:46.7

the original Penn Station that opened in 1910 and due to the

0:52.1

financial woes of its owner, the Pennsylvania Railroad,

0:55.2

was demolished in the early 1960s to make way for

0:59.2

Madison Square Garden and to Penn Plaza.

1:02.6

Tom, that story was a real bummer, I have to say.

1:05.8

Meanwhile, about a mile away from Penn Station,

1:09.1

a 42nd Street in Park Avenue,

1:11.3

Grand Central was actually facing a very similar fate

...

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