The 1930’s was an era of glamorous travel. Great Art Deco ocean liners such as the Normandie and Queen Mary criss crossed the Atlantic every other week. Trains like the New York Central’s Twentieth Century Limited and the Santa Fe’s Super Chief sped across the United States. But nobody, then or now, could honestly tell you bus travel even comes close to the glamour of other forms of transportation. Greyhound, in an effort to step up their image, went on a building spree in the 1930’s. Across the United States new modern bus stations sprang up. And in Manhattan, Greyhound built two streamline moderne terminals in the heart of mid-town.

 

Mid-Town Manhattan Bus Terminals

By the early 1930’s eight small bus terminals dotted mid-town Manhattan. In addition to these terminals the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad offered motor coach service from four terminals in mid-town. With B&O trains terminating in Jersey City (at the Central Railroad of New Jersey terminal), the railroad provided shuttle bus service included with their train fare. From the various Manhattan terminals passengers boarded buses that took them to Jersey City via ferry. Once in the terminal the bus drove onto the departing train’s platform. Of the four Manhattan B&O motor coach stations the most elaborate was located in the Chanin Building at Lexington Avenue & 42nd Street.

 

 

Another major bus terminal in mid-town, the Dixie Terminal, had a convenient location near Times Square. This terminal received its name from the fact that is was in the basement of the Hotel Dixie. Buses from this terminal were both interurban (long distance) and suburban (servicing NYC bedroom communities.) Check out  this scoutingny.com post for more information about the Dixie Bus Terminal.

 

Greyhound in Manhattan

The largest motor bus company in the United States, Greyhound, combined many franchises under its corporate umbrella. In New York City there were three franchises each with its own terminal. The smallest of the three terminals, the Midtown on West 43rd Street, had streamline moderne elements. Such as the curved window overlooking the bus platforms. But the Midtown was small compared to Greyhound’s two major terminals.

 

 

The Pennsylvania and the Capitol, Greyhound’s two largest Manhattan franchises,  would construct large and comfortable terminals for their passengers in the mid and late 1930’s. Greyhound continued to use these terminals long after the Port Authority constructed a central terminal to house all the major long distance and suburban bus lines under one roof.

 

Pennsylvania Greyhound Terminal

Just across the street from the massive Pennsylvania Station stood the Pennsylvania Greyhound Terminal. This subsidiary bus line was jointly owned by the Greyhound Corporation and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Opening around 1929 the Pennsylvania Motor Coach Terminal, built a plain, light-colored brick building directly across 33rd Street from the north exit of Pennsylvania Station’s main waiting room. This allowed for easy transfer from trains to buses and vice versa.

 

 

By the mid-1930’s Greyhound decided to spruce up their image and replace their terminal with a very modern one. Greyhound hired noted theatre architect Thomas Lamb (1871-1942) to design their new showcase terminal. Lamb’s design incorporated signature Greyhound style elements into the new building, including the trademark dark blue exterior tiles, chromium banding and curved walls. The new terminal was an excellent example of streamline moderne design.

 

 

Upon it’s opening, the new terminal became a model of modern bus terminal design. 275 buses arrived and departed with approximately 5,000 passengers handled daily. By staggering the loading platforms seven buses could be accommodated at one time. Inside the terminal the 200 seat main waiting room provided many conveniences for passengers. These included public telephones, a telegraph office, a magazine stand, baggage room and a large restaurant. And for the first time in the history of bus terminals a dormitory for the drivers. Also equipped in the terminal a  special loud-speaker system announced arriving and departing buses. Decorating the main waiting room were several colorful murals. Above the bus platforms the heavy concrete canopy served a dual purpose. First it protected passengers from rain and snow and second it was used for loading baggage onto the buses. At the time the buses Greyhound carried the luggage on roof racks. One baggage handler would stand on the canopy and hand the luggage down to a handler on the roof of the bus. The canopy is very visible in the photograph below.

 

With its convenient location between express subway stations at both 7th and 8th Avenues, the Pennsylvania Greyhound Terminal soon became the busiest bus station in New York City and perhaps the country.

 

 

And despite the advertisement claims of colorful murals and a large restaurant, the interior design was just slightly more than utilitarian. The ten window ticket counter took up a great deal of the eastern side of the waiting room and a streamline moderne style news stand  stood on the wall next to the entrance for the bus platforms.

 

 

 

 

 

With the great success of the new Pennsylvania Greyhound Terminal, Greyhound decided their Capitol Greyhound Terminal needed a new home as well.

 

 

 

Capitol Greyhound Terminal

In mid-November, 1930 the Pennsylvania and Eastern Greyhound Lines took over the lease on the Capitol Theatre Bus Terminal. The original terminal was sandwiched between the Capitol Theatre on the east and the Knights of Columbus Hotel at 8th Avenue to the west. And like the Pennsylvania bus terminal, the terminal ran through the block from 50th Street to 51st Street. This new Greyhound subsidiary was named the Capitol Greyhound Bus Terminal. The company also leased the basement, ground, second and third floors of the auditorium in the Knights of Columbus Hotel. The entrance for the Greyhound terminal was on 8th Avenue mid-block between 50th and 51st Streets.

 

 

With the success of the new terminal on 34th Street, Greyhound now wanted a modern bus station for the Capitol Terminal. Once again they reached out to Thomas Lamb and his company to design the new terminal.  It would occupy the area where the buses would pick up and discharge passengers and the site of the building directly east of that location. Construction began in mid-1936.

 

 

 

The January, 1937 issue of The Architectural Record featured the new Capitol Greyhound Terminal as a model example of bus terminal design. The 88 foot wide building extended through the block from 50th to 51st street. Bus platforms were placed on the east and west sides of the terminal and the concrete platforms were laid out in a saw tooth pattern. Starting in 1937 Greyhound used a bus with an interior luggage compartment, located underneath the passengers and between the wheels. The days of the rooftop luggage rack was over. As a result the platform canopies of the new terminal could be constructed out of relatively thin corrugated metal. Unlike the thick concrete canopy of the 34th Greyhound Terminal.

 

Most of the exterior of the building consisted of buff colored bricks on a concrete foundation.

 

 

 

The new $300,000 Capitol Greyhound Terminal opened to the public on February 6, 1937. The main waiting room featured a 24 foot ceiling. The side walls were plaster above a terrazzo base and had space for murals. The terrazzo floor featured racing greyhounds out lined by 1/8 inch white metal dividing strips. The ticket, tours and information booths featured burl walnut panels inlaid with strips of ebony separated by ebonized hardwood moldings. The linoleum countertops were edged with an aluminum nosing.

 

 

Second floor mezzanines were at each end of the waiting room. On the second floor were the executive and employee offices on the south side and a balcony lounge on the north side for passengers. The restrooms, baggage storage and air conditioning equipment were located in the basement.

With the completion of the Capitol Greyhound Terminal, bus station construction in mid-Manhattan ended until after the Second World War. Numerous bus terminals in a very densely populated area soon became a major problem.

 

 

The 1940’s

With streets already busy with city buses, street cars, taxi cabs and private cars, the addition of hundreds of long distance buses were completely clogging mid-town.  After a particular horrendous traffic situation over the Memorial Day weekend, 1940, city government jumped into action. The city eventually passed an ordinance banning all new bus terminal construction in the area bounded by 22nd and 59th Streets, 8th and Lexington Avenues. In 1940 the city started to propose the construction of a union bus terminal at 9th Avenue and 42nd Street. All the interurban bus companies would use the new terminal with easy access to the Lincoln Tunnel.

 

 

 

The city did not get around to building their new terminal until 1949. The following year the Port Authority Bus Terminal opened at 8th Avenue and 40th Street. Shortly there after all the interurban bus companies started to use the new terminal.

 

All that is, except Greyhound, which was in need of a larger and safer terminal. By the late 1940’s their 34th Street terminal had become one of the most crime infested places in mid-town Manhattan. Greyhound wanted to expand their 34th Street terminal and to consolidate the Capitol Greyhound lines into it. With the ban against new bus terminal construction east of 8th Avenue, they could never implement their expansion plans.

 

Finally, on May 17, 1962 Greyhound and the Port Authority reached a deal. Greyhound would move into the Port Authority Bus Terminal in April of 1963 and pay $1,200,000 in annual rent for twenty years. This would give Greyhound 15 berths on the lower level and offices and ticket counters in the upper floors of the terminal.

 

With the move into the Port Authority, Greyhound closed the Capitol Bus Terminal. In the summer of 1963 Kinney Systems, a parking lot chain, acquired the former Capitol Greyhound Terminal. The terminal, razed in October 1963, became a parking lot. The following month, Loew’s Inc. took over the site from Kinney with plans to erect an office building on the site. The office building was never built but in 1972 the Uris Theatre  (renamed the Gershwin Theatre in 1983) opened on the former bus terminal plot.

 

Daabros, a chain of discount department stores, leased the Pennsylvania Greyhound Terminal in June, 1963. Their plans to convert the former terminal into a store never came to fruition. Exactly when the terminal came down has been lost to time. An aerial photograph taken on July 28, 1965 documenting Pennsylvania Station’s demolition shows the site of the bus terminal as a parking lot. It seems probable that the 34th street Greyhound Terminal did not survive past the end of 1963.

*UPDATED: APRIL 23, 2023

Since this article was published in 2019, I have found evidence that the Pennsylvania Greyhound Terminal survived past the end of 1963. After Greyhound moved their operations to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in the spring of 1963, the former terminal was converted into a bargain retail store. 

And photos documenting the demolition of Pennsylvania Station show that the former bus terminal did not come down until sometime in 1964, and may have still been standing until early 1965. It was definitely gone by the summer of ’65.

 

Today, the 57 story One Penn Plaza stands on the site of the Pennsylvania Greyhound Terminal. Its construction in the early 1970’s erased all traces of the wonderful streamline moderne terminal that once stood there.

 

 

Gone in less than thirty years, not only have Greyhound’s streamline moderne terminals disappeared from New York City, they have disappeared from most people’s memories, too.

 

Anthony & Chris.