Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station: Statuary and Sculptures

by David D. Morrison, Lorraine B. Diehl (Foreword by)

Overview

Opened in 1913, Grand Central Terminal is a world-famous landmark building with a magnificent 48-foot-high, 1,500-ton statuary group on top of the main facade. Designed by sculptor Jules-Felix Coutan, a 13-foot-wide Tiffany clock serves as the centerpiece. The figure above the clock is Mercury, with Hercules to the left and Minerva to the right. In the late 1990s, a historic restoration was performed on the terminal after which two cast-iron eagle statues were placed over entrances at Lexington Avenue and Forty-Second Street/Vanderbilt Avenue. These eagles were from the 1898 Grand Central Station building that was demolished in 1910 to make room for the construction of the new Grand Central Terminal structure. Penn Station, which opened in 1910, covered two full city blocks and had statuary groups, designed by sculptor Adolph Weinman, on all four sides of the building. After Penn Station was demolished in the mid-1960s, the statuary was dispersed throughout various locations, mainly in the Northeast.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467103251
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	07/15/2019
Series:	Images of Rail
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	582,750
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

David D. Morrison is a retired Long Island Rail Road branch line manager and railroad historian. Author of six books in Arcadia Publishing's Images of Rail series, he has researched the statuary and sculptures of Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station over the past 30 years. He was the catalyst for the placement of two cast-iron eagles that are at Grand Central Terminal today, and his research resulted in the Smithsonian Institution modifying a plaque at the National Zoo.

Table of Contents

Foreword 6

Acknowledgments 7

Introduction 8

1 Grand Central Terminal Statuary 11

2 Penn Station Statuary 25

3 Statues of Railroad Presidents 41

4 Grand Central Station Eagles at the Terminal 53

5 Grand Central Station Eagles at Other Locations 65

6 Penn Station Eagles in New York State 83

7 Penn Station Eagles in Other States 101

8 Moynihan Train Hall 117

Bibliography 125

Index 127