Grand Central Palace

The Grand Central Palace was an exhibition hall in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The name refers to two structures, both located on Lexington Avenue near Grand Central Terminal.

The original structure was a six-story structure built in 1893 between 43rd and 44th Streets. It was demolished during the construction of Grand Central Terminal, and a new 13-story structure was constructed between 46th and 47th Streets. The second Grand Central Palace was designed by Grand Central Terminal architects Warren and Wetmore and Reed and Stem in the Beaux-Arts architectural style, and had almost twice as much room as the original structure. The Palace served as New York's main exposition hall from 1911 until 1953, when the exhibition space was replaced by office space for the Internal Revenue Service. The building was demolished starting in 1964. Throughout its history, the Grand Central Palace hosted auto, boat, flower and trade shows, though parts of the Palace were used as office space. The first Palace was also used as a temporary railroad terminal during the construction of Grand Central Terminal in the 1900s.

The original Grand Central Palace was built in 1893 on the block bounded by Lexington Avenue, Depew Place, and 43rd and 44th Streets.[1][2] At the time, Depew Place was an alley located west of Lexington Avenue, which formed the eastern boundary of Grand Central Depot to the west.[3][4]:98 The original Palace, a six-story structure made of brick, contained 310,000 square feet (29,000 m2) of floor space.[2]

The land under the original Grand Central Palace was originally owned by the estate of the entrepreneur Robert Goelet,[5] who died in 1899.[6] His will prohibited the sale of the land on which the Palace was located. In 1902, in preparation for Grand Central Terminal's construction, the trustees of the Goelet estate offered the land to the New York Central Railroad, operator of Grand Central Depot, for use as the site of a proposed new post office. However, the land would have to be acquired through condemnation of the site.[7] New York Central bought two blocks of land east of the future terminal, bounded by Lexington Avenue, Depew Place, and 43rd and 45th Streets, in December 1904. This land acquisition included the Grand Central Palace.[5][8][9][4]:60 After the land acquisition, New York Central continued to receive bookings for events at Grand Central Palace.[10]

As Grand Central Terminal was being completed and the New York Central's steam-railway lines into Grand Central were electrified, the railroad's commuter rail lines moved their operations to a temporary station under Grand Central Palace.[11]:106–107 The temporary station had fourteen tracks, ten of which were electrified with third rail.[12] The Hudson Line was the first to be electrified, on September 30, 1906.[11]:97 The temporary station was not ready until November of that year.[12] By that time, trains on the Harlem Line were electrified, and its operations moved to the basement of Grand Central Palace.[13] New Haven Line electric trains started running to Grand Central Palace in October 1907.[14] The Palace was used as the terminal for all three lines while the old Grand Central Station was being demolished in sections,[11]:106–107 a process that started in 1910.[15] The original Palace was demolished by 1913 to make way for Grand Central Terminal.[1]

A new 13-story building was opened on May 19, 1911.[16][17] The 13-story building, with twice as much floor space as the previous structure, was located on the west side of Lexington Avenue between 46th and 47th Streets, occupying the air rights over the railroad tracks leading into Grand Central Terminal.[18] The Palace was designed by Warren and Wetmore and Reed and Stem, who had also designed Grand Central Terminal.[4]:111 It was the first structure designed as part of Terminal City, a series of commercial developments that were built after Grand Central's formerly open-air rail yards were covered over.[4]:106[17] The Palace was New York's main exposition hall until it closed in 1953. Its location and the proximity of Grand Central Terminal spurred the construction of a hotel district in the area.[16]

Alfred I. du Pont and a group of associates took over the Grand Central Palace's lease in May 1918.[19][20] Subsequently, in August 1918, the building was rented to the U.S. government,[21] which used the structure as a hospital during World War I.[22] The government relinquished the Palace to du Pont's syndicate in April 1919.[23] The following year, du Pont and his associates announced that no new exhibitions would be held in the Grand Central Palace after April 1921, effectively leaving the city without a major exhibition space.[24] The syndicate later clarified that only the International Exposition of Industries would continue to be held in the Palace.[25]

In 1920, the structure's lease was transferred to Robert M. Catts.[26] The following year, Catts proposed $500,000 worth of improvements to the Palace as part of the construction of a $3 million, 18-story office building on an adjacent empty plot. The plan entailed converting the Grand Central Palace into an office building and attaching it to the adjacent structure via an arcade. The main entrance to the remodeled structure would be relocated to Park Avenue to the west, while the floor below, which faced Lexington Avenue, would be converted into retail. The Grand Central Palace would have been renamed the Central Square Building because at the time, there was a "central square" to the west, which abutted the north end of Grand Central Terminal.[27] He formally filed plans for the construction of the annex the next year,[28] and the new 20-story office building was completed by 1923.[29] However, in 1925, Catts dispelled rumors that the Grand Central Palace would be transformed into an office building.[30] Catts's enterprises became insolvent and went into receivership in 1927, though Grand Central Palace continued to host events.[31]