February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
There’s no question about the building’s beauty, and its symbolism. But the GPO is also a tribute to the Irish-American contribution to U.S. history. It is named, after all, for James A. Farley, one of the great but regrettably forgotten Irish New Yorkers from the early and mid-20th Century.
Farley was Franklin Roosevelt’s postmaster general — that’s why his name is on the GPO. But Farley was a good deal more than the guy in charge of getting the mail delivered. He was a New York power broker of the first order, one of several prominent Irish-Americans who helped FDR implement the New Deal. In fact, he was such a prominent figure in the 1930s that he (along with another fairly prominent Irish-American, Joseph Kennedy) toyed with the idea of running for president in 1940, when it was assumed that FDR would honor the nation’s two-term tradition for presidents.
Of course, FDR foiled Farley’s plans by running for a third term — after, it must be said, encouraging Farley, Kennedy and no doubt many others to go ahead and dream their dreams of succeeding him. But while Farley never came close to running for President, he remains an important figure in 20th century Irish-American history. Putting his name on the grand Manhattan GPO was a just tribute to a forgotten giant.
The extraordinary Farley building, which once had a pretty impressive neighbor in the old Penn Station, has outlived its usefulness, as least as far as the U.S. Postal Service is concerned. Nearly a decade ago, the Postal Service made it clear that it would slowly close up operations at the site.
That news energized New York’s senior senator at the time, Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Moynihan, who lived for a while just a few blocks from the Farley building, was among the thousands of New Yorkers who have lamented the day when a wrecker’s ball knocked down the old Penn Station across the street from the post office. He understood, as others did, that public architecture can and should inspire us as citizens of a great republic. Even with the golden age of rail transportation now a part of history, Moynihan realized that a great city like New York ought to have great public spaces for the sake of visitor and resident alike.
In the place of the old Penn Station is the monstrosity called Madison Square Garden, along with a conventional office building. The station itself is below those two structures. With its low ceilings, cheap retail stores and shopping mall architecture, the current Penn Station is, in a word, sad.
When the Postal Service announced that it would leave the Farley building, Moynihan saw a chance to make up for the mistake of knocking down the old Penn Station. He proposed that the post office become the new Penn Station, renovated to accommodate the needs of Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Railroad.
Everybody agreed it was a great idea. Years passed. The Senator retired, the unborn station was named in his honor, and then he died.
The conversion still hasn’t happened. Penn Station still is a pit. And Moynihan Station remains unrealized.
Two weeks ago, the Senator’s daughter, Maura Moynihan, held what amounted to a pep rally in a conference room in the Farley building to rally support for the conversion. She has taken up her father’s cause, and has the clout and personality to enlist people like Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton. And she has the passion to explain why this project is so important. Great public spaces, she notes, are a sign of a great, confident people and visionary leaders.
Gathered in the conference room were old hands of the Moynihan days, people like Bill Cunningham, who is now Mayor Bloomberg’s communications chief. They share the late Senator’s passion for great public projects as well as great public spaces. Senator Schumer, who served alongside Moynihan for two years in the Senate, spoke with great passion about New York’s “culture of inertia,” which has been the kiss of death of many great ideas and projects since the 1960s. Moynihan often sounded the same lament, wishing, with a wink, for the days when Tammany boss Richard Croker built the IRT subway line as a favor to a friend.
One of these days, all of the power and might present in that room will get the job done. That will be a great day for New York, and for the memory of Pat Moynihan, truly one of the most-influential Irish-Americans of his time.
Of course, the conversion from post office to rail station will lose something — the name of James A. Farley. While there is a poetic touch in replacing Farley’s name with Moynihan’s – one, a New Dealer, the other, one of the New Deal’s great defenders, both Irish-American — it’s too bad that Farley may wind up even more obscure than he is today.
Perhaps there’s a way the Moynihan Station planners and supporters can preserve the memory of James A. Farley in some way in the building that bore his name for so long. Certainly the Senator would appreciate the gesture, for he knew, better than most of us, the contribution Farley made to New York, to Irish-America and to the United States.
Either way, the grand old building will remain an Irish-American landmark, even if most people don’t realize its significance.