Transcripts For CSPAN3 How A Train Station Transformed America 20240622

Letter is is the these are the letters he sent me. We still have Grand Central terminal. We came close to not having it. Fortunately it was saved. I will answer any questions you might have. Book and metthis with my colleagues at Grand Central publishing we came up with the title, Grand Central how a train station transformed america. I went home and said did it . That is an ambitious agenda to live up to. I realized that it easily did that. Wasmore i researched, this a transformative place. Stop and think if you go anywhere in the world and say this place is like Grand Central station, Everybody Knows what you are talking about, a metaphor for frenzy, it allpeople recognize over. Grand central has been the side homecomings,ands, send offs, the target of nazi saboteurs. Passengers have included president s, kids left for summer camp, and soldiers who went to war. Everyone has a favorite Grand Central moment. Ben she were chronicled the suburban commuter, who said it is as inviting as a rich persons house with the doors thrown wide open. The concourse is larger than the nave of Notre Dame Cathedral and yet it is strangely inviting. Even as a child on my dismal way to Brooks Brothers to be fitted , i did notel suit feel diminished. Hugo, selznick discovered the book and film character at Grand Central. In the 1950s i was standing on one of the platforms in the train terminal looking up at this gleaming locomotive. New york central number 371. The engineer leaned out of his cabin said do you want to come drive this thing . What could be better than this question i keep me on his lap, put my hand on the throttle, and the engine chugged forward tothree feet. To me, it seemed like a mile. Driving 80 locomotive in Grand Central station. I assume when i started working on this book i knew everything there was to know about it. I learned so much and i keep learning. Every time i give a book talk like this someone comes up to me at the end and says did you know that so and so . It is a learning process that goes on and on, and like my day job at the times, im getting paid for getting a postgraduate education. Technically it is a terminal. The word terminal conjures up endings. Ran central was a place of beginnings, not the least of which is its own. Trains terminate their. Railroad people like to recall asks whether the train stopped at new york city to which the conductor replied, there would be an awful crash if it didnt. You couldnt tell that story about pennsylvania station. For all its splendor, one person described it as reducing new york to a twominute stop on the line from Long Island City to new jersey. Suggests a destination. It has been a gateway to new citysnce 1913, and the opening to the continent. For those of us who came from places where Grand Central station was a radio program, new york was no mere city. It was an infinitely romantic notion, the nexus of love and money and power, the shining dream itself. Im not sure how many of you remember, i dont, but every saturday morning on cbs radio and announcer would in tone as a bullet seeks its target, shining rails in every part of our country are aimed at Grand Central station, heart of the nations greatest city, drawn by the magnetic force of the metropolis, day and night, great trains rushed toward the hudson river. Housesriefly by the south of 125th street. And then, Grand Central station. Crossroads of a million private lives, gigantic stage on which are played a thousand dramas daily. Just imagine listening to that on the radio and the image that would conjure in your mind. Since then the terminal has threaded into Popular Culture even more. Madmens roger sterling gorged on oysters and martinis. Cary grant called his mother from a phone booth before fleeing town on the 20 century is 20th Century Limited. In the main concourse in madagascar are. Walk trope beneath the station. First one of the multiuse buildings. Stores, offices, all the diversity of a city within the confines of one building. I have to admit im not sure i believe this story but holiday magazine recalled the exploits of a newly married couple whose trained to Niagara Falls was canceled. They honeymooned at Grand Central. They got a room at the biltmore, they dined him, to get finish of the terminal shop, and did all this without ever seeing a train. Even more amazingly they returned a year later to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Grand central was home to the first Cbs Television studio. Athe goldbergs came from there. Unfortunately, some time later in the 1950s when Television Sets got better, people realized when the screen was shaking it wasnt their set, it was the vibrations from the trains moving in and out of the terminal. The cbs studio had to move to west 57th street where it is today. There were great trains like the 20th Century Limited. We know about red carpet treatment. The term goes back to ancient times was popularized on the 20th Century Limited. Every night when that train left , porters would roll out a red carpet the length of the platform and passengers would go down that carpet on the way to the train, like traveling on the queen mary, just going crosscountry. Standard time was born at Grand Central terminal. There were a hundred different time zones in the United States until charles dowd, a boarding school principal, came up with the idea of establishing 4 time zones. Grand central was the first place where that was begun. One of the things i discovered in my research is some years later charles was killed in an accident upstate. He was run over by a train of all things. Unfortunately history does not tell us whether the train was on time. [applause] [laughter] a mergere result of between two architectural firms. One was read and stem which sounded like a landscape firm. Alan stem was the brotherinlaw , the chief engineer of the railroad. They hired them to build Grand Central. With the war in on the scene, another architect, whitney warns connections trumped those of alan stems. Know, it iso you who you know. Each of the architectural firms brought a lot to the equation. You could make an argument the sum of what they did was greater than its parts. When the original Grand Central was dealt in 1871 the New York Times said this place is neither grand north central. Why would they build on 42nd street in the middle of nowhere . The city was mostly below canal street, below houston street. What was the station doing uptown there . We look at the history, the vanderbilts delivered midtown manhattan to their doorstep. They shifted the entire center of gravity of manhattan to midtown. That was all the result of Grand Central. They develop something else, which we take for granted. Ramps instead of stairs, so people, travelers with baggage would not have to schlep up and down stairs. A lot of people had no idea what ramps were. One magazine harkin Julius Caesar and said these were the earthworks the ancient romans built when they were invading a city to get up to the ramparts, hence ramps. The notion of air rights, which has been monetized, coming into play as the mayor wants to rezone part of the core door corridor, air rights were invented at Grand Central. The original vision of this terminal was to deck over park avenue, and by doing that he created an monetized this real estate. One thing we forget is the train tracks created this giant gash in the middle of manhattan. All the from lexington, way of to 59th street in an open , submerged train yard. Over. Ecided to deck them that just change the entire face of manhattan. Landmark presentation, we will go into that. Grand central became the poster building for every landmark in the United States. The notion of Landmark Preservation as a legal principle was in shined enshrined at Grand Central. Accident,al began by by an accident in 1902. A train coming out of that park avenue tunnel in the fog, snow, rain, the suit and senders couldnt see a light in front of them, a control light and crashed into another train, killing two dozen people. The New York Times wrote as slowly the harvest of death rate in the hole under the york streets is being garnered in the , the of new rochelle townsmen are beginning to ask each other not how this occurred, but wide. The why was simple. Engineers could not see through andsuit and coal soot coal. It railroad was terrified and its officers were going to be liable if not for this accident, then the next one, being inevitable. They decided to electrify the railroad. By electrified the railroad they were able to do two things that otherwise never could have happened. They were able to build a double deck terminal that no longer had to be an open train shed for all the air to circulate, and they could deck over those train yards on park avenue, creating a boulevard, creating land. Buildings worth billions of dollars then and now. Grand central was built as the Worlds Largest rail terminal. Tracks. Orms, 67 bigger than penn station ever was. One of the things near central was looking at was over his shoulder, at this place going up on the west side, penn station. Electrification meant something important to the Pennsylvania Railroad. They were the coke and pepsi of railroads. Total fierce competition. At that point the Pennsylvania Railroad dropped its passengers off in new jersey. They had to take a ferry across to manhattan. Electrification meant they could build a tunnel under the hudson river. Built a that and then tunnel. That was another reason the new york central realized it had to build a giant, majestic, Grand Central terminal in the middle of manhattan. 2011, metronorth became the nations busiest commuter railroad. We might not think of it is that but it surpassed the long island. This book is not just about the building. It is the biography of Grand Central, it is about people. The chief engineer who came up with this ingenious plan to build Grand Central. Brian hendry, who befriended the homeless. Fiely johnson who feel ds customer complaints. Wheres the restroom . How do i get out of here . There are so many passageways. And the third, a tribute to good taste, where is the apple store . People cant find it because it is so subtly woven in. And to people like jack on onassis. Jacqueline she had a long history of historic preservation. When the dam was being built in egypt, the Kennedy Administration gave funds to preserve the antiquities. The egyptians said we would like to give you something in return for that. Jacqueline picked to the temple of gender, and little did she realize she would be living on fifth avenue across the street from the temple, and when she had a dinner party, she could call across the street and the metropolitan museum would light r for hermple of dendo and her guests. That is clout in new york. [laughter] one day when the city look like it had lost the suit for a Landmark Preservation, they sue the city to avoid the designation. They wanted to build a skyscraper on top. The city was not going to appeal the ruling, which i didnt know. The city said it was going to be held liable for damages from the railroad if it appealed and lost. Those damages could come up to 80 million, which was a lot of money. Storyline own axis read a learning of the plan for an appeal, and she called the municipal art society. Men was an intern and picked up the phone, and yelled over to the head of the Landmark Preservation, theres a woman who says she is Jacqueline Onassis on the phone, and of course it was. One of the things i enjoyed researching the book was discovering secrets of Grand Central terminal. You see all these lightbulbs on giantrquee, these chandeliers. Could they afford crystal or globes . Buried deliberate. The vanderbilt for showing off electricity. They were saying this is not gas or some other means. We have lightbulbs, which were still relatively new. They festooned them all over the place. Another thing you see, the decorated motifs, acorns. It turns out acorns were on the family crest, the invented family crest of the vanderbilt. Why acorns . From little acorns come mighty oaks. Mistakes, the biggest mistake, though most dont know it, it was noticed a couple of days after the terminal opened by an alert commuter, the ceiling. Mistake. Uare feet of the constellations backwards. Exactly why they are backwards no one is quite sure. The best exclamation explanation is the Columbia University astronomer who devised the sky chart assume they would hold them over their heads and paint. They put it down and painted. Aat you see actually is heavenly view of the constellations rather than a bottomup view from the concourse. Electrolyte and pointed out that there is also a rectangle that you can spot on the Southwest Corner of the ceiling. Very small. It is the color of these microphones. What it is was a deliberate attempt to show before and after what the ceiling looks like before it was cleaned in the 1990s. Whats interesting is when the engineers were not to say why is the ceiling this black, they assumed it was from the senders cinders. It turned out it was from tar and nicotine of smokers. Someone pointed out to me, did you notice which constellation the rectangle is near . To cancer. [laughter] the train boards, the departure times are wrong. If you ever miss your train, dont call me at home. The 1 52 to white plains really leaves at 153. The railroad gives you a neck some minute. Dont take a chance if you dont have do but every one of those train departure times is wrong. I discovered the owner of Grand Central is. Who do you think it is . New york state . It is a guy who never played with electric trains. He was not invited to the Grand Central centennial gala because he was so obscure. Bought from the successor of the penn station railroad, his bought grandht Central Station and leases it to metronorth. It is a 200 year lease. Metronorth has an option to buy the terminal in 2018 and probably will do that. Metronorth pays 2. 5 million in rent to this man, a publicity shy owner, and they say that doesnt sound like much. Metronorth also agree to take over all of the environmental liabilities, which were considerable for an industrial railroad like the new york central was. The whispering gallery. I always thought this was an urban legend. Something people make up. If you stand outside the oyster bar and you can see people doing bizarre,is a little they are whispering into the wall. Tiled ceiling carries that sounds over 40 feet to the other end of the gallery and you can hear people clear as a bell. It is remarkable. You walk down there, going to the oyster bar and use these people talking to the wall and say only in new york. [laughter] Grand Central also has the deepest basement in new york. 90 feet deep, deeper than the world trade center, then the Federal Reserve gold falls. It is where the transformers are that change the current from alternating to direct tur curret to drive the trains. And a couple of years when the Long Island Railroad opens, that basement will be 140 feet deep. 14 stories deep alone the street level. Colson whitehead and the colossus of new york wrote as the earth cools, Grand Central bubbled up three miles of magma, in the crest of this island, settled here the first immigrant. Till on assimilated, that may be an urban legend because temple i tiffany says ty have no record of that. These sculptures were considered the largest sculptural grouping in the world. Recently, the Lincoln Building across the street from Grand Central originally named for lincoln, was rechristened Grand Central place in an affirmation , imaginerminal cachet naming something after Grand Central in the 1970s or 1980s. The hotel is now the weston Grand Central. Metronorth estimates 10,000 people come to Grand Central every week day to eat. Makesthat the railroad because it may Grand Central into a destination gross 27 million a year, which subsidized the railroad. Instead of succumbing to the desperately shortsighted survival strategy of destroying the terminal and build a skyscraper above it, it was reconstituted in the original architect vision as a grand public space. Created aect convincing expression of the believe the goals of capitalism are not inimical to the enhancement of the public realm. The metropolitan Transportation Authority square the circle, demonstrating the public realm and capitalism could not only coexist, they could drive together. Ofnd central, the product bold architecture, brutal flexing of corporate muscle, no other building i think it epitomizes the partnership that melded the best instincts of government with public spirited private investment. There are inevitable comparisons with penn station. Mike wallace, the cowriter of gotham, said Grand Central was arguably the more transformative of the two stations. The central cover provided an underpinning of the pride of park Avenue Apartments and a haven for new york super rich. The super rich had been on the run for over a century as one island of upperclass debility after another. Washington square, unions where overrun by common people. The park avenue structures provided a stability of the rich have never known in new york. The establishment of the Upper East Side helped draw hotels, department stores, luxury shops. Memberseled commuting and affluent suburbs to the north, back to midtown each day. This provided an incentive to relocate their. Vast numbers of tourists hoteling a burst of construction, restaurants, theaters, and the terminal itself was a powerful midtown magnet. Concourse, barrel vaulted roman bath. Its staircase as grand as the paris operas. The romance of the 20th Century Limited service, all crucial factors in shifting the City Cultural and commercial center of gravity to its doorstep. In you cant go home again, Thomas Muller wrote of penn station. Fell slant beings of light ponderously on the station floor , as the combo use calm voice of time rolled over that room. Today, penn station is a different place. Vincent scully summed up what had been lost when he said one entered the city like a god. One scuttles and now like a rat. Never ase that it was overpowering or as grandiose as penn station and that may be why it survived. It wove its way into the fabric of new yorks the so subtly, so tightly, it could not be ripped out. The real brilliance of the place for all its architectural glory is the way in which it confirms the values of the urban ensemble. Today the sound of time it reverberates and more than any other place that i can think of, it embodies the voice of the city and the rhythms of urban america. Thank you for listening. I will be happy to answer any questions you might have. [applause] we will have a microphone go around. Any questions . Sam there is one. I would like to introduce the man who made this book possible, the great photographs in it, the chief photographer for this book and the former photographer for the metronorth railroad, frank english. [applause] can you tell me how the turns turned around. Sam another innovation at Grand Central. Two loops go under 40th street. The trains coming into the station terminal could turn around and head out. This was usually more important for longdistance trains. Most have cabs at either end anyway as they come in and go out the other side. It was an innovation at the time there are two loops there. Grand central is said to have the safest mens room in america on the lower level because it was built to withstand a train zooming off the tracks of one of the lower loops. I dont think anything more need be said about that. [laughter] thank you for your presentation. Tension, thef the current building, seo couple of words on if there were any outcries to the previous internations of Grand Central. Sam we think of Grand Central as a landmark, and thank goodness it was saved, but there was there were two incarnations at least a Grand Central before that, built in 1871 and 1899. It was rebuilt, the original Grand Central depot. They named it Grand Central station. After the train accident in 1902 William Walters said it had to be torn down. They did not need this gorgeous open train shed because there was no more smoke from the electrified mo cowan locomotives. They could deck over park avenue. I dont think there was much of an outcry. It was one of those things where the place had been renovated a few years before. Here in 1903 they decide theyre going to tear it down and build another place. Once people solve the clans, they realized it was far superior to anything that had been there before. What did the critics say if anything concerning construction of the pan am building, which changed the profile of the building looking south . Sam william have this grand vision for terminal city, a civic center that was going to be an opera house. Ultimately, in that new york central building, on the north end of Grand Central, past the pan am building was added later. You are right. It is one of the two places i can think of that provide a real vista like that. You can look at Grand Central. You can look at fifth avenue at Washington Square arch. There are not many other places like that. The pan am building was built to make money. They tore down an old baggage handling place north of the station. What was fascinating is when the penn central was arguing against the landmark designation, it was like a kid who is accused of killing his parents and says, have mercy, im an orphan. The lawyers for the penn central said this has already been ruined as a landmark by the pan am building, which they had built. Why worry about putting up another skyscraper . It was not a persuasive argument. Most people, it was adapted to the site and made to be less mammoth then it was going to be originally. It still sticks out like a sore thumb. Im curious. Re is a wonderful tariff there are wonderful railroad terminals in other cities. What is the chronology . Was grand search all was Grand Central before after, where the examples for these others . There were a bunch that were temporary and he is contemporaneous. The big ones were roughly, if im correct, the early part of the 20th century, most modeling for Grand Central was not on other railroad terminals. That made it unique. Frenched from the version, the Grand Staircase was modeled after the paris opera. Penn station is described as being inspired by the baths of error call him the baths, the two levels, the ramps, the windows, and Sky Innovation where you have form and function together, letting light in, letting air in, allowing people to walk from one part of the building to the other, i find it unnerving frankly to walk on a glass floor. It is one of the great sites. Seeing those silhouettes of people going by between offices and corners of the building. Much of it is original. Building,t around the here is a building stuck in the middle of the street. Now traffic and get around it. Most of that was innovative and ingenious at the time. Back . Stions in the i dont [inaudible] im curious. [inaudible] paris she spoke to her brother and told him about the electric train. Sam you are close. It was alexander, the head of the Pennsylvania Railroad. I believe he was marys brother. Yes, right. There is a bust of him in penn station. He envisioned penn station. Whats so interesting is that penn station never has the same impact on midtown that Grand Central did. , ahad a post office, macys couple of hotels. None of that sweeping reconstruction revival of Grand Central. I think Grand Central is the best Meeting Place in the city. You are never lost. Sam absolutely. Meet me under the clock read i had to have so many people meet me at the clock. When i met people at the clock i would meet someone else who i hadnt planned to meet. [laughter] it is like being in town square, everyone goes by. Like 700,000 people passed through every day. Every weekday. Opened, theentral New York Times said someday this is projected to handle as many as 100 million passengers. In 2011, before sandy, it got up to 82 million and growing. It will probably hit that hundred million in not too many years. [inaudible] two questions. The bold straight are they environmentally friendly . That is a problem. When the railroad wanted to put in bulbs that were environmentally friendly and energyefficient, the Landmark Preservation Commission Said you cant put those fluorescent bulbs. They had to find someone to have all that were a little oval. Nazi saboteurse who landed and they rendezvoused at Grand Central terminal. They went into the newsreel theater to catch up on war news. Evil. Bout the banality of it is not entirely clear whether Grand Central was one of their targets for sabotage or not. One other thing i forgot to mention, that justifies the subtitle of how it transformed america, the Civil Rights Movement was nurtured at Grand Central. Began among the porters of Grand Central, meeting in harlem. I was going to ask you about the newsreel theater. When it started, how long it lasted. Is there a connection with that . Sam i dont know. I dont think edison had a connection. It started in the 20s or the 30s. It kept going into the 1950s or early 1960s. [inaudible] it is the Perfect People it is the perfect thing for people waiting for people. You certainly can go in and see a couple of newsreels. Could you tell us where the newsreel room is what it is today . Sam it is a retail store. I think it is in the gray bar passage. Something else that i just discovered recently, because standard time began at grins centrals Grand Central, there , you can see this clock and under the clock engraved in the marble it says Eastern Standard Time. The railroad was so proud of the fact that Eastern Standard Time had begun. Wrong when it is daylight time. They dont cover up the sign. The sign still says eastern standard. , are theretell us you can have a day when have one of the old train still functioning,s you can do a ride on . [inaudible] is there some place can see those . Ongoingre will be an exhibit at the transit museum. Possibly the one in brooklyn. Do you know . There is an exhibit in Vanderbilt Hall of the history of the terminal. One of the interesting things, that room, you just learned so much, walk through that room and forfloor is for road rowed. People would be on the benches with their feet going back and forth impatiently waiting for urroughs incarved f the floor. Story,nted to know the if it is true that there is a train car underneath Grand Central terminal that they use astoria inhe waldorf a special elevator that no one could see he was handicapped . That is a matter of conjecture. There is a train car, it looks like a freight car. It could well have held fdrs car. It is the size in which a car would it. The car was at Grand Central. Logsked at secret service from the 1940s to confirm. Roosevelt took a train to the waldorf and when up in a private elevator into the hotel. This was during the war. To hide the fact that he had polio. It is not clear whether that baggage car was used for his vehicle. One of the things in researching the book that i discovered, whenever the president of the United States is in town now and staying at the waldorf, there is a fully manned train running under to whiskrf them out of town in case he requires an emergency means of e class exit. Duty is a train waiting on manned 24 hours a day when the president is in town. I wanted to answer that ladies questions about where was the Grand Central theater . If you going to Grand Central terminal and you see there is a , thattore, a liquor store is where Grand Central theater used to be. Look on the ceiling. Mayora mural there. That is where the interests was. Entrance was. [inaudible] i wondered if you would know how she was able to garner, to bring the energy together, what people did she now, what influence specifically did she have to bring this about . Sam the power of Public Opinion. The city was this close to not appealing the Court Decision that said it overstepped its bounds in declaring Grand Central a landmark. Now we debate whether the mayor kanban soft drinks. Then it was a question of can the city exercise its police power . The declaring it a landmark and borrowing the penn Central Railroad from building a skyscraper constitute a taking under the law . She read the story ends called the municipal art society, and with the municipal art society, with philip johnson, with fred cap words, with a number of other people, rallied Public Opinion and galvanized the movement to save Grand Central. Did that influence the Court Decisions . One never knows. Judges are somewhat swayed by Public Opinion but it created momentum to keep the appeal wasg, which it until it 1978 when the Supreme Court ruled and said this landmark law is valid and set the stage for Landmark Preservation all over the country. Did anything ever happen . [inaudible] sam to the benches in the waiting room. There are still some benches in the much smaller waiting area near the station masters office. I guess the west side of the terminal. Some of those benches are there. I dont know what happened to the others. They were these great mighty oaks benches. I will find out. That is another thing i would have learned researching the book. I wanted to answer that ladys question. Come up dont you here. Guide. A to her they are in the middle of the staircase that goes down from the top. That is where the others are. Sam the staircases, there is a secret staircase. He reminded me of the orson welles movie the third man where he disappears into the kiosk and in the atlantic. Re is as tyrell staircase there is a spiral staircase which you never see, there is a little door that opens and it is one of those fascinating things. The great staircase, the marble staircase on the eastern end of the main concourse, when they were renovating in the 1990s they discovered the original plans that were supports to be there was supposed to be a twin staircase. It is not clear why that wasnt built. They figured who was going to go to the east side . , why do we10 immense need another staircase for . When you are restoring a landmark, can you put Something Back that wasnt there . That triggered an enormous philosophical debate about landmarks and preservation. They did put it there. It is gorgeous. Conform to the americans with disabilities act. Any other questions . Read one of the early people involved in the station actually lived there. The campbell apartment, place toa great drink and watch yuppies drink, mr. Campbell was on the board of the new york Central Railroad. He had a company that was the precursor to a Credit Rating company. He did not live in that apartment. He transported a medieval palace from italy or france and had it recreated there. He did not actually lived there. I cant doubt for the fact that a nap there,k but he lived in a house in connecticut. He was an eccentric character. Among other things he used to work at his desk with his pants obsessedse he was so with not having them wrinkled. He would take off his pants and hang them when he was at his desk. Im not sure if you would want him getting up to greet you. That was mr. Campbell. Any questions . Could you speak to the transformation of the area around Grand Central . Do you have any thoughts . Sam mayor bloomberg wants to rezone the area, so that there could be more taller buildings. A lot of those buildings are probably anachronistic. They are old, not suited for high ceilings, for the internet. There are some landmarks in that area, leave her house pretty waldorf is one. There are some buildings that ought to be landmarks. The roosevelt hotel. They may be declared landmarks. 17 Landmark Properties in that area. The mayor wants to get this done before he leaves office. There is no question some of those might be threatened by zoning. This is a city that has always been evolving. There was no outcry when Grand Central was torn down in the 1900s. Some of these buildings may have to go for new construction if there is a market for it. Market forces will determine that more than anything. Im not sure they are therefore it immediately given what is going on downtown on the west side in the hudson yards project. That is a lot of new space coming online. On history bookshelf, here from the best American History writers of the past decade. To watch these programs, visit our website. You are watching American History tv, all weekend from every weekend. Week on first ladies, influence and image. Edith wilson. She falls gravely ill and passed away. President Woodrow Wilson remarries edith wilson and he suffers from a stroke, making her role as first lady as his companion and guardian. She became the first first lady to travel to europe. Examining the public and private lives of the women who fill the position of first lady, and their influence on the presidency. From Martha Washington to michelle obama. This sunday, curt dion has been visiting the graves of u. S. President s and Vice President s, documenting his adventures on his website. He talks about those visits and his interest in American History. The one gravesite is the rockefeller. Nelson rockefeller. How did you do it . We were able to get to it through an act of god. My father walked farther down the perimeter of the cemetery and solve this tree had fallen. He saul Nelson Rockefellers grave and decided he would have to get me there quickly after that. 1950 five, newin york citys landmarks Preservation Commission was established to protect places in the city. Of columbia dolkart University Speaks on the history of the commission and the obstacles it has faced over the years as well as the criteria and process for designing a landmark. The Skyscraper Museum and new york city in new york city hosted this program. Ms. Willis welcome. Im the founder and director of the Skyscraper Museum. I want to welcome you tonight to the lecture that will elevate the50th Year Anniversary of landmarks Preservation Commission and as occasion by the book that is the catalog for the exhibition called saving place which is on view at the museum of the city of new