The Lonely Fight For The Hotel Pennsylvania
A hacker and his compatriots stand athwart an old hotel’s demolition and everything they say it represents. Will a development-mad city hear them?
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Gregory Jones was welling up. “As of Monday, scaffolding went up around the hotel,” he said, pausing. “I get a little emotional,” he sobbed. “Friends of mine work at this hotel. It means a great deal to me.”
Mr. Jones, a big burly guy with a shaved head, a goatee and a soft spot for antiquated accommodations, was speaking to a panel of elders from the local community board last week about the fate of his cherished Hotel Pennsylvania.
Voracious developer Vornado Realty Trust, which owns the ancient lodge on Seventh Avenue—along with several adjacent lots—has threatened to demolish the 22-story Beaux-Arts structure, built in 1919, and erect in its place by 2011 an enormous office tower rivaling the size of the Empire State Building.
The smashing hotel redevelopment plan is merely part of a far grander scheme to reconstruct, reconfigure and polish to a Grand Central–like shine the entire surrounding area, from the old Farley Post Office to Madison Square Garden and Penn Station below to the Manhattan Mall.
As the first metal beams of a new construction shed went up around the hotel last week—a sign of forthcoming improvements, not implosion, if you believe the hotel’s Oct. 4 press release—Mr. Jones, 38, a nearby 30th Street neighbor, rushed to lobby local officials: Tell Vornado, he pleaded, leave Hotel Pennsylvania alone!
“How much more do we have to sacrifice in our history for progress?” asked Mr. Jones, who has formally requested an historic evaluation of the McKim, Mead & White–designed building by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.
“If we can get this building landmarked,” he said, “they can’t touch it.”
That’s a pretty big if.
Decades ago, legendary preservationist Jane Jacobs spearheaded massive demonstrations to protect another McKim, Mead & White creation, the original Penn Station, which once stood stoic across the street. That didn’t stop developers, who ruefully razed the beloved hub in 1963.
Mr. Jones’ neo-Jacobsian revival, titled “Save The Hotel,” hasn’t generated quite the same level of public outcry.
“I have been talking to a lot of people and gotten very little interest in the Pennsylvania Hotel,” noted community board member Joyce Matz, who nonetheless volunteered to research the hotel’s history and report back to the neighborhood advisory group next month. “I don’t honestly know how worthy it is to save.”
ONCE A GLAMOROUS DESTINATION where jazz standouts Count Basie and Duke Ellington performed in the grand ballroom—a place immortalized (along with its phone number) by the Glenn Miller tune “Pennsylvania 6-5000”—the 1,700-room hotel has since devolved into a cheap, decrepit tourist trap more commonly associated with reported bedbug attacks than big-band nostalgia.
Preservationists citywide have responded to Vornado’s proposed demolition with a resounding “Eh.” Next Page >
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Keep up the fight here. We need to preserve the past plain and simple. Try getting a room in Manhattan for less than 500 a night these days. It is becoming a place that may have a credit check prior to stepping foot there.
Sad but unfortunately very true these days.
I see evidence some exceptionally large terra cotta lion heads in the rooftop cornice, and of course spandrel panels with wreath designs can be seen on the upper floor along with the massive columns on the entrance, all hand-made with great care.
It's a stately imposing building and should remain standing, I'm against demolition of this hotel, but as we all know, money talks and people will destroy anything to make a buck.
All the protests, letters and faxes in the world don't stop an idiot intent on making money even if it means destruction of a priceless relic, antique or building, that is why you see people on Ebay selling "antique art prints" which are little more than RIPPED OUT pages removed from rare and antique books.
I've even seen pages torn out of a rare hand printed Guttenburg Bible from the 1500's I think they were, and pages of buildings torn out of rare books on architecture from the 1880's to sell as individual "Art Prints" solely because the make more MONEY selling the individual pages as they would the book as a book.
Old books, like old buildings are not in unlimited supply! and like the dodo bird or passenger pigeon, they can go the same way.
As a sculptor and former New Yorker who works exclusively in recreating and reviving Victorian and Art Deco architectural ornaments, gargoyles, keystones etc I'm appalled at the destruction that continues unabated in NYC, Chicago and elsewhere. I see plenty of evidence of the destruction even from 1500 miles away in the form of salvage yard photos showing the acres of materials ripped out of old buildings and sold off as bric-a-brac
I recently stayed at the Hotel Penn. If they are not going to tear it down, they need to gut it and completely remodel. The place is a total DUMP!!! The inside of the tub had huge chunks missing and had been painted over with white paint, the sink had two large cracks in it; the room was never vacummed the whole three days we were there; the knob for the temperature control was missing so we couldn't regulate heat; the window wouldn't open and the pillows were the thickness of a piece of paper. But the worst thing was that we fould a pair of mens' jockey shorts beside the refrigerator!!!
I, too, feel that historical places should be preserved. We just seem to knock everything down today - trees, buildings, etc. However, if buildings are not going to be maintained, then something needs to be done. Apparently, the hotel's only customers are people and dogs there for the Westminster Kennel Club Show.
Am I sad to see it go? From the standpoint of the song about the hotel and it's telephone number, YES. From the standpoint of a decent place to stay, NO!!!!!!!