Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station, 1935-1941
WPA Federal Writers ProjectCapital New York’s and Kate’s Penn Station posts this morning reminded me of these lovelies from the (now apparently offline?) NYC Municipal Photo Archive. I love their everyday-ness. From the short shadows I imagine the mid-morning lull, most people at work, the relatively few on the street still with that pre-tourist New York look of being definitely on the way to something, if only an Automat or Chock full o’Nuts. And still no crosswalks or walk/don’t signals.
Taken as part of the WPA Writers Project:
The Federal Writers’ Project was organized in the autumn of 1935 in order to utilize the skills of the so-called ‘white collar’ unemployed. The New York City Unit was particularly prolific. The Municipal Archives holds records created for forty-one book projects, some of which reached publication and some not, among them the New York City Guide, New York Panorama, and assorted studies including The Italians of New York (in both Italian and English versions), The Film Index: A Bibliography, The Jewish Landsmanschaftn of New York (in Yiddish), Jewish Families and Family Circles of New York (in Yiddish), and A Maritime History of New York.
Lovely!
