NY's Penn Hotel

Sad but true, New York's Pennsylvania Hotel located across the street from NYP and connected by an all weather tunnel to the station is being torn down. It was used for years by Amtrak passengers visiting NY. Hotel was built in the same style as old Penn Station (also designed by McKim Mead?) and was stately. It was also the home of the phone number made famous in the Glen Miller song. Believe for a few years it was also known as the Statler and also the Penta.
I recall that there were numerous visitor taxes that applied to hotel rooms costing over $100 a night, so for many years in the 1980s or so, rooms could be had there for $99 which was quite reasonable for NYC.
I am frankly surprised that with the restoration of the Farley post office as Moynihan and talk of replacing current Penn station, that this building is being demolished.

It's being demolished for a tower named "PEN15." No, I am not joking.

It's an absolute travesty that this is being torn down. Is it because we are so far removed from the original Penn Station that there are not protests to this? The plans call for a bunch of benign, uninspiring towers that will no doubt make a few people very rich. In fact, this project might as well be Hudson Yards II for all I am concerned.

Yeah, there's some efforts to save the hotel but I don't know what the timing is. It's being tracked by radio station WBAI and 2600 Magazine's joint program, "Off The Hook". There may be a few more opportunities to save it but the NY Historical Preservation Board already punted on declaring it a historical landmark.

I spent one night at the hotel courtesy of Amtrak when my train into NYP was too late to make my connection to Williamsburg. It was getting a bit seedy at the time but nice and close to NYP to catch my train south the next day.

Two friends and I spent a night there about 20 years ago. People arriving from an overnight trip in a railroad roomette would find the rooms relatively spacious, but those accustomed to modern hotel rooms would suffer claustrophobia, even more so now that there is probably an additional inch of paint on each wall. Fortunately for us, management took pity on us and gave us two rooms for the price of one.

They've tried landmarking, renovating and repurposing for the past 15 years. Those attempts all failed.

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There's no shortage of boring glass and steel monoliths going up. Will anyone ever build a classical/beaux-arts style masterpiece again?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VPUDAyK4xQ

Where will the pups competing at Westminster now stay?

My NY City trips with my parents had us driving to WASH, taking an overnight in the AM - PRR to NYP, and staying at the Penn hotel. Riding the PRR did not know what the heavy braking sound of the train by the GG-1 engineer was. Only later found out what that sound was. As a kid thought it was steam line sound.

A fire broke out in the former hotel yesterday.

https://patch.com/new-york/midtown-nyc/ ... n-underway

Ken

Pen15? Really? Was that name thought up by 13 year old girls or their grownup selves? (it is a very funny show by the way). Not very original.

NealG wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 12:57 pm Pen15? Really? Was that name thought up by 13 year old girls or their grownup selves? (it is a very funny show by the way). Not very original.

It is "PENN 15" according to the official Vornado Realty Trust site: https://books.vno.com/books/alyp/#p=10

Detractors get a thrill by calling it PEN15 instead of it's proper name....

StLouSteve wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 8:40 am Hotel was built in the same style as old Penn Station (also designed by McKim Mead?) and was stately.

Yes, the Hotel Pennsylvania was also designed by the firm of McKim, Mead & White, albeit nearly a decade after the death of Charles F. McKim, Penn Station's principal architect. (He died before the station was completed.) By "in the same style," are you referring to the similarity between the six-column portico of the hotel and that of the station's arcade (at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street)? Beyond the columns, I don't see many similarities. The hotel was essentially a 22-story box with some classical ornamentation—but endearing nonetheless.

A feature that eludes many passersby is the 15-foot setback of both the hotel and 11 Penn Plaza (across 32nd Street). The purpose of the recessed building line was to create a two-block forecourt to Penn Station. What a marvelous idea! It's sad to think that scarcely anything will remain of the old Pennsylvania Station neighborhood once the Vornado blows through.

It's sad for me to hear such frustrating news. When I was in NY for work, I stayed there once and enjoyed the service. Moreover, it wasn't overpriced, even considering its location.