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🔍 To kick off our series of #LostLandmarks, we would be remiss if we didn't start with the granddaddy of all demolished landmarks. Yes, it's the one, the only, that started it all: Pennsylvania Station. 
Popular myth traces the birth of the NYC preservation movement, and the creation of Landmarks Law, to the loss of Penn Station. (Preservation forces *had* existed in NY before Penn Station's demo, so take this interpretation with a grain of salt. That's a tale for another day.)
In 1955, the officers of the Pennsylvania Railroad Corporation developed a plan to raze Penn Station and replace it with a “Palace of Progress.” 🤔 The proposed building would sprawl across two blocks, rooted over the site of Penn Station.
In January 1956, the original plan for the "Palace" was abandoned in hopes of redevelopment on an *even larger* scale. In 1960, a new, lasting threat emerged: the Madison Square Garden Corporation released plans to build a massive complex over the site.
Around this time, The Action Group for Better Architecture in New York (AGBANY) formed, largely in response to the threat to Penn Station. AGBANY organized an anti-demolition rally on August 2, 1962 and employed other methods from petitions and placards to direct public appeals.
Despite AGBANY's passion, only a few hundred New Yorkers protested Penn's demolition. Jane Jacobs said of the protest's weak spirit, "There was no exhilaration to this kind of thing. It was more like a wake. The city was making everyone's life absurd with its goofy decisions.”
By the time Penn was demolished (a protracted, three-year process), poor maintenance had taken its toll. By the end, the architectural richness of Penn went unnoticed by most commuters who walked through it daily. Nevertheless, we remember it as a true city icon. #LostLandmarks
@threadreaderapp, unroll, please!
