Taking up two entire city blocks in midtown Manhattan, from 7^th to 8^th Avenues and 31^st to 33^rd streets, the grand edifice boasted a 150-foot ceiling in its 277- foot long waiting room, which was inspired by the Roman Baths of Caracalla and the Basilica of Constantine. Comprising nine acres of granite and travertine marble shipped in from Italy, the building was lined by exterior colonnades that recalled the Basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome, giving it the appearance of, in McKim’s words, “a monumental gateway and entrance to one of the great Metropolitan cities of the world.”

Adolph Alexander Weinman (American, 1870-1952). Night, Clock Figure from Pennsylvania Station, 31st to 33rd Streets between 7th and 8th Avenues, NYC, ca. 1910. Pink granite, 132 x 86 x 42 in. (335.3 x 218.4 x 106.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Lipsett Demolition Co. and Youngstown Cartage, 66.250.1. Creative Commons-BY-NC

Now on display in the Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden, this 11-foot female figure once stood beside a huge clock that greeted travelers entering the station. Each of the station’s four pedestrian entryways was surmounted by one of these clocks, and each clock was flanked by two allegorical female figures representing time, carved in pink granite. Day held a sunflower while the hooded Night bore a drooping poppy. These magnificent figures, in addition to the 22 perched eagles that dotted the roofline, were all designed by the sculptor Adolf A. Weinman.

Charles Follen McKim. Partial Column, from Penn Station, 31st to 33rd Streets between 7th and 8th Avenues, NYC (demolished 1964), ca. 1910. Travertine marble, 145 x 136 in. (368.3 x 345.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Youngstown Cartage Co. and New York Improvement & Development, 66.250.2. Creative Commons-BY-NC

Installed at the lower level of the Sculpture Garden is a 14-foot partial column from the station’s interior. Carved from travertine marble, it was one of six 35-foot-high Ionic columns that flanked each of the stairways leading to the main waiting room. This photo, which shows the columns at the far end, gives you an impression of the sheer size and monumentality of this light-filled space.

Penn Station, Waiting Hall Facing 33^rd Street Entrance, 1910, photograph, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University

Penn Station was sadly demolished starting in 1963, after less than 50 years of service, taken apart piece by piece over three years. The façade sculptures by Weinman were carted to a landfill in the New Jersey Meadowlands along with the rest of the rubble-sculptural elements, marble columns, and all. (The circumstances surrounding the demolition have been eloquently recorded in a number of places, including one season 3 episode of Mad Men; Lorraine Diehls’s The Late Great Penn Station; and one of my top reads from this summer, Rubble, a history of demolition written by Jeff Byles.)

But Penn Station had many fans, who, though unable to stop the demolition, were instrumental in salvaging many important elements from the building. The Museum’s Penn Station fragments in particular were rescued from the dump through the efforts of Ivan Karp and the Anonymous Arts Recovery Society. Night and Penn Station Column were two of the first and most important pieces to be installed the former Frieda Schiff Warburg Sculpture Garden, which opened in 1966.

A number of other Penn Station elements were salvaged as well. The Museum also owns two decorative plaques (currently not on view) taken from the exterior walls. Many of the eagle sculptures have been located at various metropolitan locations on the eastern seaboard.

Of the four original clock figures, one pair now forms the centerpiece of the Eagle Scout Memorial Fountain in Kansas City, Missouri. A second pair is planned for use in a renovation of a Newark, New Jersey, train station; and a Day figure (possibly the companion to the Museum’s Night) was found in 1995 by the Bronx-based Con Agg Recycling Corporation. The fourth pair is still unlocated.

Hugo Haase (German, 1857-1933). Lion, from the El Dorado Carousel, Coney Island, Brooklyn, ca. 1902. Zinc sheeting, Mounted: 82 x 36 x 69 in. (208.3 x 91.4 x 175.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Frederick Fried, 66.251.1. Creative Commons-BY-NC

One of the earliest art works to enter the Museum’s Sculpture Garden collection, and perhaps one of the most popular, is the roaring lion, installed over the rear staff entrance to the Museum, ready to pounce on those who enter. The lion had a long history before coming to the Museum in 1966. He was originally designed as one of a trio that pulled a chariot atop the entrance pavilion to the ornate El Dorado Carousel, a popular attraction at Coney Island for over 50 years.

Image from Carol A. Grissom, Zinc Sculpture in America 1850-1950 (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2009), p. 427.

This elaborately gaudy gateway was decorated with life-size female figures playing harps or floating through the clouds and with painted curtains depicting women warriors on horses. The central gateway was surmounted by the chariot, and life-size figures of St George slaying the dragon topped the niches at either end. Like the lion, the rest of the façade was made of formed sheet zinc and painted in bright colors. Research has determined that the lion may have originally been painted a gold color with bronze metallic paint and illuminated with electric lightbulbs in its eye sockets and emitted sparks from its mouth.

The elaborate and ornate carousel itself was composed of three separate platforms, each rotating at different speeds. The innermost was a throne room surrounded by life-size angels with trumpets; the outer and inner tiers had beautifully carved chariots. The platforms were adorned with a menagerie of creatures—horses, pigs, ducks, eagles, dolphins, and cupids–all made of hand-carved wood and surrounded by Art Nouveau paintings, mirrored posts, and 6000 flashing lights. Inside was a four-ton band organ manufactured by A. Ruth und Sohn in Waldkirch, Germany.

The carousel was built in 1902 by Hugo Haase of Leipzig, a successful German amusement park ride manufacturer and bridge builder. In 1910, it was purchased by John Jurgens for the exorbitant price of $150,000 (plus $30,000 custom fees) and installed near Dreamland Park on Surf Avenue. It was only one of several independent carousels in Coney Island, but according to carousel expert Frederick Fried, it was “the most spectacular carousel America had ever seen.”

On May 27, 1911, Dreamland Park was destroyed by a huge fire and was never rebuilt (the New York Aquarium, founded in 1896 at Castle Garden in Battery Park, has occupied that site since 1957). The fire also damaged the carousel but not much. It was purchased and repaired by Steeplechase Park’s owner George C. Tilyou, who moved it indoors to his fireproof building the Pavilion of Fun. The carousel’s sheet zinc sculptural façade was then relocated as the corner entrance to Steeplechase on Surf Avenue for the next decade. When the façade was demolished in 1923, the three lions were removed and reused elsewhere in the park.

In 1965, Tilyou’s descendants sold the park to developer Fred Trump (Donald’s father), who demolished the park before it could gain landmark status. In 1968, unable to build his apartment complexes because of zoning regulations, Trump sold the land to the city. Since 2001 it has been the site of MCU Park (formerly Keyspan Park), the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team.

What happened to the carousel and lions? When the park was demolished, most of the amusement rides were put in storage and eventually sold. The El Dorado carousel was purchased for the 1970 Osaka World’s Fair, and is currently in use at the Toshimaen Amusement Park in Tokyo. The El Dorado lions were purchased by private collectors, including Frederick Fried, who donated this lion to the Brooklyn Museum in 1966.

Brooklyn Iron Foundry. Lamp Post, one of two, from Steeplechase Park, Coney Island, Brooklyn, ca. 1900. Cast iron, 140 in. (355.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, 66.254.2. Creative Commons-BY-NC

The museum also purchased a pair of lampposts from Steeplechase Park, which are now installed in the Sculpture Garden. These two street lights, manufactured by the Brooklyn Iron Foundry around 1900, are designed with a central globe encircled by four hanging globes. In 1984 the city used the museum’s historic lampposts to cast reproduction street lights (models BB12 and BB14) for use in a renovation of Union Square.