(rshsdepot) Baltimore, MD/Scranton, PA

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_home.com>]

Baltimore's railway station link=20
By: Frederick N. Rasmussen=20
Baltimore Sun 8/1/8/01



"You leave the Pennsylvania Station 'bout a quarter to 4, read a =
magazine and then you're in Baltimore."- Chattanooga Choo-Choo

If you've been on the train to Scranton and Baltimore and think you're =
seeing double, you're not. Well, maybe just slightly.

News reports last week stated that Amtrak intends to open a 72-room =
hotel inside Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station within two years. =
Construction by the developer, James M. Jost & Co. of Columbia, is to =
begin sometime next summer, said Jost officials.=20

If the Penn Station project goes through, it will join its sister =
station in Scranton as a hotel complex. And if the two stations' Beaux =
Arts classicism looks similar, it's no mistake. They were designed by =
the same architect, Kenneth Murchison of the New York firm of McKim, =
Mead and White. He also designed the landmark Hoboken (N.J.) Station of =
the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, which is currently =
undergoing restoration.

The Scranton station was built by the DL&W Railroad in 1908 and =
functioned as the rail line's headquarters and busy terminal until the =
end of passenger service in 1970, when it was abandoned.=20

Today, the Radisson Lackawanna Station hotel features 146 guest rooms. A =
highlight of the building is its restored grand lobby, with its =
ornamental mosaic tile floor, barrel-vaulted Tiffany stained-glass =
ceiling and rare Siena marble walls.

Known as "Pennsy's Acropolis," because of its location, Baltimore's =
station is a little less overwhelming. While Murchison failed to =
re-create a barrel-vaulted ceiling, he did install three massive =
23-foot-diameter skylights of leaded glass, which allow light to enter =
the structure.

Iron balconies, restored bronze candelabras, whimsical sconces, terrazzo =
floors and Rookwood ceramic tiles also help make this an impressive =
building. And like its Scranton counterpart, it has an impressive clock =
and soaring Doric columns, which support the entablature above the main =
entrance.=20

Construction on Penn Station, which replaced a drafty and antiquated =
station that had been built in 1886 by the Northern Central Railroad, =
was started by the J. Henry Miller Construction company of Baltimore in =
1910. On Sept. 15, 1911, eager crowds gathered to tour the new station, =
which cost $1 million.=20

"There is not a better railroad station in Philadelphia, in New York or =
in the country than this, and it all belongs to Baltimore," said Gamble =
Latrobe, then general agent and superintendent for the Pennsylvania =
Railroad in Baltimore.

Contemporary newspaper accounts said, "Admiration was frank for its =
beauty and safety to passengers, apart from the main waiting room, on =
the first floor, there are the ladies' parlor, the men's smoking room, =
telegraph and telephone booths, ticket offices, news booths, lunch =
counter and dining room. Below is the baggage room and immigrants' =
waiting room."

Through the years, a number of schemes have been proposed for the =
station, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. During =
the 1920s, Theodore R. McKeldin, then Mayor William Broening's =
secretary, investigated the possibility with Adm. Richard E. Byrd of =
airships landing on the roof of the station.

When it was proposed that the B&O and the Pennsylvania combine =
operations in a joint Union Station, the B&O balked.

In an editorial, H.L. Mencken responded, "That a new Union Station is =
needed is, of course, sheer nonsense whether these professional lovers =
of Baltimore, certain talented men of vision, not a few of them with =
something to sell, will be able to crab the new scheme.

"I can recall only three or four occasions when it was uncomfortably =
crowded, and then it was crowded not by passengers, but by idlers =
horning in to gape at Coolidge, or Jack Dempsey, or the Prince of Wales, =
or some other magnifico."

In 1975, a study by the Regional Planning Council and the Baltimore City =
Department of Planning, with support from the Maryland Department of =
Transportation, proposed converting Penn Station into an intermodal =
facility that would link rail service to a new bus terminal and a =
proposed stop on the Baltimore subway system.

Perhaps one of the more ludicrous elements of the study (possibly =
harking back to the 1920s) suggested a heliport where a fleet of =
helicopters would whisk travelers between the rail terminal and =
Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

In 1995, an underground 550-space garage and a new plaza in front of the =
station were built. A new access road and bridge project is to be =
completed by the end of next year. Planning for a new bus station served =
by Greyhound and Peter Pan buses is in the planning stage, as is a new =
parking garage.

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