Grand Central Terminal and the Fight That Reached the Supreme Court

The grand stone facade ahead on your right fronts Grand Central Terminal, and the building survived not just a century of trains but a demolition fight that changed how American cities protect their own history.

Grand Central opened in nineteen thirteen, and its Main Concourse ceiling was designed by the French painter Paul Cesar Helleu, commissioned in nineteen twelve to cover the space in a deep blue green sky crossed by the stars of the zodiac. According to the explanation most often repeated by guides and historians, that sky is painted mirror reversed from the way the constellations actually appear, as though viewed from beyond the stars looking back toward earth rather than up from the ground. Exactly why the reversal happened is itself debated, with some calling it a deliberate artistic choice and others simply an old error nobody ever fixed.

By the nineteen sixties, the railroad that owned the terminal was in financial trouble, and its successor, Penn Central, proposed building a fifty five story office tower directly above the terminal, which would have gutted much of the historic structure. A preservation group called the Committee to Save Grand Central Terminal fought the plan, and one of its most visible members was former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In April of nineteen seventy eight, the day before the case was argued before the United States Supreme Court, Onassis rode a chartered preservation train from Grand Central toward Washington to draw attention to the fight. The court ruled in the city's favor that same year, in a case known as Penn Central Transportation Company versus New York City, and that decision became the legal foundation that lets cities nationwide protect landmark buildings without paying owners for lost development rights.

So the painted stars above the concourse, and the building itself, both survived, partly because of a fight that reached the nation's highest court.