The Place to Go: New York’s Grand Central Terminal Pt. 1

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Parent Category: Travel Info

Category: Travel Feature

Published on Friday, 03 December 2010 15:08

Written by Ward Morehouse III

Because I and millions of others have fallen under the spell of what is referred to New York City's majestic "civic cathedral," I may not be uniquely qualified to write about the history and restoration of Grand Central Terminal. But as a young boy I vividly remembers riding in a coach car behind one of the last long distance steam locomotives up to Ithaca (NY) and, long before the terminal became the still-exciting commuter train hub it is today.

In those days, departure times were written in chalk in a waiting room under what was the Biltmore Hotel, one of three grand hotels, including The Roosevelt and The Commodore (now the New York Grand Hyatt), that ringed Grand Central. The Biltmore was gutted in 1981 despite the building’s landmark status. It was rebuilt as the Bank of America Plaza (335 Madison Ave) and fortunately, the Biltmore’s famous gilded clock festoons the lobby.                                 

THE BEGINNING
Railroad magnate Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt opened the first Grand Central in 1871 accommodating three major railroads and four million passengers the first year. But by the dawn of the 20th Century train travel had mushroomed to such a extent that construction on a new Grand Central began in 1903. In February, 1913, at an equivalent cost of what would have been billions of dollars in today's currency, the new and glorious Beaux-Arts terminal, modeled on the Roman Imperial Baths, opened.
 
"The motive of the facade is an attempt to offer a tribute to the glory of commerce," Kurk C. Schlichting quotes Whitney Warren, a Vanderbilt cousin and the terminal's architect, in Schlichting's wonderful book Grand Central Terminal: Railroads, Engineering and Architecture in New York City.

THE 1983-1993 RESTORATION
 Even after the international outrage at the demolition of NY’s beautiful Pennsylvania Station in 1963, Grand Central also faced either the wrecking ball or the unsightly addition of an office tower directly above it. With the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the late New Yorker architecture critic Brendan Gill leading the campaign, the terminal was saved. The official ruling was made by the US Supreme Court in the 1978 Penn Central Transportation v. New York City. The Court upheld that NYC’s Landmarks Preservation Act, which named the building an official landmark, as being “reasonable.”
 
Jackie’s campaign words:
 
"Is it not cruel to let our city die by degrees, stripped of all her proud monuments, until there will be nothing left of all her history and beauty to inspire our children? If they are not inspired by the past of our city, where will they find the strength to fight for her future? Americans care about their past, but for short term gain they ignore it and tear down everything that matters. Maybe… this is the time to take a stand, to reverse the tide, so that we won't all end up in a uniform world of steel and glass boxes."
 
After years of fiscal and even major physical neglect, a mammoth amount of work had to be done to restore Grand Central to the magnificence it enjoys today. A primary component of its restoration was vastly increasing retail space, with a third devoted to restaurants and cafes.
 
For many of us, the most dramatic restoration project in terms of sheer visibility was the restoration of the 25,000-sq-ft ceiling with its star constellations. Back then they were barely fissionable. After being scrubbed, blue acrylic paint and 23-karat gold leaf was applied to the ceiling. (Curiously, the astrological sky is actually backwards!)
 
But not all the restorations were for the sake of art and architecture. Escalators were installed making access easier, not only to the MetLife building but also to fast food take-out places on the lower level and the rest rooms. A week ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness of the men's room on the lower level. Lines for the women's restroom were long, however. An alternative for women: the restroom in the "ticketed waiting area" just off the Main Concourse by Zaro's Bakery. It is often less crowded. (There's no men's restroom in the ticketed waiting area.)

FILMS
Perhaps the most famous movie featuring Grand Central was the 1934 movie Twentieth Century starring John Barrymore and Carol Lombard. The late Barrymore, whose granddaughter is current Hollywood star Drew Barrymore, played a tyrannical Broadway producer who does everything in his power to cajole, threaten and sweet-talk Lombard into coming back to Broadway in a play he's producing. Most of the movie takes place aboard the 20th Century Limited, a luxury train that went from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles.                     

FREE TOURS

• The Municipal Arts Society (T 212-935-3960) sponsors a free tour every Wed at 12:30pm.
• The Grand Central Partnership (T 212-883-2420, www.grandcentralpartnership.org) sponsors a 90-min tour of the Terminal and surrounding area every Friday.
• Take Your Own Tour (http://grandcentralterminal.com) has maps for self-guided tours and for the retail shops.             

Next Time: Dining In Grand Central

[Ward Morehouse III is the Checking In columnist for TravelSmart Newsletter/courtesy travelsamrtnewsletter.com]

 

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